Robert Novak: Yes, McCain can still win

Can John McCain possibly win this thing? Can he actually win in November?

The outlook is bleak: The polls are ugly, the Electoral College map is grim, the economy is getting worse, and McCain's choice of Sarah Palin may have energized the Republican base, but it has appalled and frightened many outside that base.

Still, McCain's campaign has come back from the dead more than once: He survived his early support for immigration reform; he not only survived but has prospered from his support for the Iraq war surge, and he rebuilt a primary campaign that was in a state of near collapse to win the Republican nomination.

But can McCain do it again? That question was posed to a panel of Republican experts:

• Ken Duberstein was Ronald Reagan's chief of staff from 1998 to 1999 and deputy under secretary of labor for Gerald Ford.

"I think it is uphill for McCain but a victory is doable," Duberstein said. "He needs obviously to raise questions about Obama, but he also needs to reassure the America people - and not simply the base - that he has a plan to get us out of this economic mess and restore America's stature throughout the world.

"He needs to spell out not why he is a maverick, but what he will do to lead. What are the specifics? What is the strategy? He needs a three yards and a cloud of dust and not a Hail Mary strategy. He needs to do what John McCain does best, which is explain to the people where John McCain wants to take the country.

"There are a hundred lifetimes yet ahead in this campaign, starting with the debate Tuesday night. This is an election about big issues and big ideas, and this is not the time to play small ball. We are well past this stage. To many Americans, earmarks are a facial blemish. He has to talk about spending, not just earmarks, not just about a Bridge to Nowhere and about bears' DNA."

• Greg Mueller was a senior adviser to Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes in their presidential campaigns and is an expert on conservative politics.

"McCain needs to change the discussion back to a referendum on Obama. He needs to define Obama's agenda as dangerous to America," Mueller said.

"It is dangerous to the economy. Obama is calling for higher taxes, historical spending and a huge increase in regulation that will hamper American business. Contrast that with McCain's message of lower taxes and freezing spending. On foreign policy and national security, Obama is a risky bet in a hostile world. McCain needs to keep banging those themes over and over again so on Election Day voters think Obama is just not ready for this.

"The Supreme Court issue can be extremely powerful for McCain: Obama is basically for using the court for social engineering. This is key for Reagan Democrats in key swings state. Catholics respond very well to the Supreme Court issue. McCain and Palin have got to get on that."

• Whit Ayres is a pollster and consultant who worked in Lamar Alexander's 1996 presidential campaign and in numerous Senate and governor's races. He is an expert on Southern politics.

"Anybody who is talking about a race being over a month out has not been participating in very many campaigns," Ayres said.

"The Obama-Biden ticket is the most liberal ticket the Democrats have offered America since George McGovern in 1972. Barack Obama is far morel liberal than most Americans. Moreover, a politician's associations are a window into his values. If John McCain liked to hang around with the Ku Klux Klan and if his church had given a lifetime achievement award to racist David Duke, all of us would consider those legitimate areas of inquiry.

"On leadership, values, culture and ideology, John McCain is far closer to most Americans than Barack Obama."