From "The Decider" to "The Postponer"

What to do when you're a war-crazed septuagenarian who ain't got bupkes in the way of ideas? Ross Douthat to the rescue:

Frankly, McCain has done such a lousy job selling the domestic policy proposals he's put forward that he's more or less free to change them however he wants at this point. It would have been better if he had changed them dramatically and publicly on Monday, after the bailout passed and the market kept tanking, but before the debate itself. But the next time the stock market has a really bad day (i.e., tomorrow), he should "huddle with his advisers" and announce that in light of the epic crisis, he's going to postpone his entire domestic agenda (such as it is) for, say, two years in favor of a short-term but expensive stimulus package aimed directly at the middle and working class. Last night's "homeownership resurgence plan" - which was the best pander he's produced since the financial crisis started - could be part of this package, but it should take a back seat to a proposal for short-term and substantial middle-class tax relief. The crisis is taking money out of people's pockets; McCain should promise to put a lot of money right back into them, and to do so immediately, with as large a tax rebate as he thinks he can propose without the media laughing him to scorn. And at the same time, he should promise that every dollar the federal government earns off the bailout, every dollar saved from cutting earmarks, and every dollar saved as we draw down into Iraq, will go directly into some other pander-iffic proposal - like, say, an emergency relief fund for retirees whose 401(k)s have lost more than some specific percentage of their value in the last month. Wrap it all in a bow, call it a "Bailout for Main Street," and put as much energy into selling it as they've put into trying to rebrand Barack Obama as radical, vacuous, unready to lead. (And yes, they can still talk about Ayers, too.)

Is this cynical and opportunistic? Sure. Would it please the conservative intelligentsia? Quite possibly not. Would it look like just another desperation move, one that undercuts McCain's spending-hawk brand and gets mocked roundly in the press? Quite possibly. But John McCain is running to succeed the most unpopular President in modern history, in what is quite possibly the most politically-hostile environment a Republican has faced since the Great Depression, and in the midst of the worst financial crisis since, well, the Great Depression. And while four weeks of aggressive pandering to the middle class probably wouldn't win him this election, it's a strategy that has the virtue of actually addressing itself to the massive, massive anxieties that Americans are experiencing at the moment, as opposed to addressing itself to issues that voters, I suspect, perceive as tangential at best.