Rove: What McCain Must Do

Despite the hype around Barack Obama, John McCain is just 1.9% behind in the latest Gallup pole. In other words, he could win this thing, and Karl Rove has some advice for him. McCain is “rightly raising questions about Obama’s fitness to be president,” Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal, but he also must “make a compelling case for electing John McCain.”

That means laying out a “bold domestic reform program,” Rove contends—standing in front of factories, not oil rigs. And it means looking for opportunities to go against the grain, reinforce his maverick image, and talk about the bipartisan credentials he alone has. Finally, the intensely private McCain needs to let America into his life. And once he's done with his to-do list, Rove thinks he might just have a shot. (More John McCain stories.)