John McCain: Act First, Think Later

The Obama campaign is finally starting to take the right approach to framing McCain's character. On a conference call with reporters today, Obama surrogates Susan Rice and Richard Clarke repeatedly attacked McCain for his reckless and impulsive approach to foreign policy. According to Greg Sargent:

[S]enior Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice argued that there is "a pattern here of recklessness" when it comes to McCain's approach to various national security issues. She pointed out that McCain reacted too quickly with "aggressive and bellicose" rhetoric on the Russia-Georgia crisis, and contrasted that with Obama's measured response to the dust-up.

"There's something to be said for letting facts drive judgment," Rice said, also referring to McCain's desire to target Iraq right after 9/11.

And here's how TIME's Mark Halperin summarized the call:

Rice says the Republican’s “tendency is to shoot first and to ask questions later,” saying he “cheered Bush’s decision to take our eye off the ball and start a war in Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11.”

Clarke joins in on slamming “quick-draw McCain,” calling him “reckless,” “trigger-happy” and “discredited.”

That's exactly right. Every Obama surrogate should be saying this stuff over and over again. And they should frame the issue not just as a matter of judgment, but as an extension of McCain's general character and temperament. There's all kinds of material to work with here, so it shouldn't be hard. As I noted the other day, many of McCain's Republican colleagues are on record saying that he doesn't have the temperament to be president, that he's a hothead with a hair-trigger temper. Those quotes and anecdotes are highly damaging and need to be repeated endlessly. Obama's surrogates just aren't doing their jobs until voters are hearing the words "hothead" and "trigger-happy" at least as often as they hear the word "celebrity" and are picturing Yosemite Sam every time they hear McCain talk.

The message needs to be "if you liked the Iraq War, you're going to love a McCain presidency." McCain has an "act first, think later" approach to foreign policy and it's dangerous.