McCain’s Fine Line of Security

Riverside, Calif. — One of Sen. John McCain’s main strategies for overcoming the deficit he and his party face in opinion polls is to make the election about national security and terrorism.

That approach helped the Republican presidential candidate emerge victorious from the primary field, and the topic remains the top issue on which he bests his Democratic opponent, Sen. Barack Obama.

Even so, Sen. McCain risks accusations from Democrats that he is following the Bush administration by playing into the politics of fear.

The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks made national security a major issue for Republicans. President Bush enjoyed strong public support in the aftermath, helping lift members of his party in 2002 and 2004 elections. In October 2004, shortly before his re-election, 77% of voters listed terrorism as very important to their vote, according to the Pew Research Center. Three years later, the survey found 69% of Americans saw it as very important.

This week, a senior McCain adviser opened the door for swipes that Republicans were playing to terrorism fears with a comment he made during an interview with Fortune magazine. Charlie Black, a McCain confidant, said a terrorist attack on the U.S. before the election would be a “big advantage” to Sen. McCain’s candidacy. Mr. Black apologized for the comment Monday, but the Democratic punches already were flying.

“Mr. Black’s comments…display a campaign mentality dedicated to the same scare tactics repeatedly used by George W. Bush,” said Greg Tarpinian, executive director of Change to Win, an umbrella organization for six unions, which has endorsed Sen. Obama. The group called for Mr. Black’s resignation.

Others disagreed. “Charlie Black was impolitic but right,” said James Lindsay, the director of the Robert S. Strauss Center for International Security and Law at the University of Texas at Austin, who isn’t allied with any campaign. “The political fallout from a terrorist attack would likely help Sen. McCain.”

A Gallup survey released Tuesday revealed that 70% of Americans think Sen. McCain would do a good job of handling terrorism, compared with 49% for Sen. Obama.

What is more, 52% of respondents said Sen. McCain would do a better job on terrorism than Sen. Obama. Only a third said Sen. Obama would be better. Slightly more than four in 10 respondents said the candidates’ stances on the subject of Iraq and terrorism were important. The economy, by comparison, mattered to half.

The survey results were based on telephone interviews with 1,625 adults conducted June 15-19. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

Monday, Sen. McCain decried Mr. Black’s comments. “I cannot imagine why he would say it. It’s not true,” the senator said. “I’ve worked tirelessly since 9/11 to prevent another attack on the United States of America. My record is very clear.”

Yet Sen. McCain trumpets his senatorial experience in dealing with politically volatile regions. In December, on the day of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Sen. McCain expressed his sadness to reporters and discussed his knowledge of the region and his travels there. Sen. McCain added he was the most qualified in the field on national security.

A little over a week later, he won the New Hampshire primary.

Sen. McCain employed the same tactic in Florida. A few days before that contest in January, he accused his closest rival, Mitt Romney, of wanting a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Although Mr. Romney denied it, the attack successfully swung the attention from the economy to the war. Sen. McCain narrowly won that primary.

Sen. McCain, the four-term U.S. senator from Arizona and former prisoner of war who spent more than two decades in the Navy, stumps on his patriotism and often mentions his wartime sacrifices. His résumé offers a contrast to that of Sen. Obama, a junior senator from Illinois who has had little experience dealing with national-security issues.

Sen. McCain’s campaign has continued that theme since Sen. Obama has emerged as his general-election opponent. Last week, the campaign seized on remarks Sen. Obama made in a television interview praising law enforcement’s handling of the 1993 World Trade Center attack. The McCain campaign officials convened conference calls with reporters on three mornings to criticize their opponent. Mr. McCain’s foreign-policy director, Randy Scheunemann, accused Sen. Obama of having a “Sept. 10th mind-set.”

The Obama campaign responded with its own conference calls, trying to focus the dialogue on an issue other than national security. They also gathered their surrogates to discuss Mr. Black’s comments, though nearly 18 hours after the news had been reported.

In the end, staffers insisted the discussion be focused on policy and stopped short of calling for Mr. Black’s resignation. Richard Ben-Veniste, a member of the 9/11 Commission, called Mr. Black’s remarks “very disappointing.