Closing arguments.(CAMPAIGN 2008)(Essay)

THE country wants a change. It is fed up with both parties, but especially Republicans after eight years of Bush. The financial crisis has heightened that mood. John McCain has not appeared to be the steady, unflappable, reformist leader the public wants. So it is not surprising that he is trailing in the polls.

The McCain campaign made some brilliant tactical moves in the summer, slowly chipping away at Barack Obama's lead. But that success, and the early reaction to McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate and to the Republican convention, papered over McCain's deeper strategic problems: his failure to establish a reformist image and his lack of a compelling middle-class economic message.

Now McCain is being told by a lot of our friends that he should hit Obama hard for his radical connections: his ties, above all, to the terrorist Bill Ayers and to the hatemongering Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Those connections are legitimate issues and McCain's discomfort at raising them is self-destructive. But they are not, by themselves, enough to turn around the campaign.

In the last weeks of the campaign, McCain should first of all concentrate on middle-class economic concerns. People were worried about the state of the economy before the financial crisis became dire, largely because of the state of their wallets. McCain should do more to publicize his proposal to double the tax exemption for children, which would amount to more than $1,000 for a typical family. He should present his entire economic agenda as a way to lower the cost of living. He should note that his health-care plan will lead to a large increase in wages as employers convert health benefits into cash for their workers. The result could be a $9,000 increase in take-home pay for a typical family. Obama's health-care plan, by contrast, is a small-business job-killer.

Second, McCain needs to make the case that his agenda will do more to promote growth. Obama wants higher taxes, including on capital gains. It is hard to think of a worse time to implement that proposal. Obama has been hostile to trade, one of the strongest engines of the economy in recent years and itself a downward force on the cost of living. He has proposed an avalanche of new spending, adding ...