For my liberal friends who wonder if I'll bash the GOP, look no further. Today I'm going to look at a Congressional primary in Utah. Representative Chris Cannon won't be back for his 7th term in 2009, as Jason Chaffetz beat him in the primary. Given that the district is solidly Republican (I think 77% voted for President Bush in 2004), Chaffetz will be in Congress come January. Why is this important?

Cannon had the support of President Bush and Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT). Cannon outspent Chaffetz something like 7-1. It didn't matter. Chaffetz ran on a campaign of changing Washington, strict immigration enforcement, and eliminate the federal government's role in education. It's clear that the people of the 3rd Utah Congressional District liked those ideas.

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Why am I writing this? Because a presidential campaign stressing these ideas would be a big winner this November, be it Senator Obama or Senator McCain. Obama is for "change" but without any specifics (and his lies and flip-flops on core issues of his candidacy are moving public perception back to him being just another candidate). Plus: He's for change. Minus: He's for big (really big) government.

McCain is for shrinking government, but he's also for expanding government's role in energy and other areas. Should McCain emphasize limited government and (even though this would be a flip-flop for him) tightened immigration, he'll win, likely easily.

But now let's return to reality. McCain sounds like Obama light, and that won't cut it. There are substantial foreign policy differences, but the electorate is not focusing on that right now. (That could change, but it's a we'll see.) There's no real difference between McCain and Obama on immigration. There are big differences on taxes (I'll be writing about that quite objectively--and I mean that--on my tax blog later this year), though I think that both candidate's tax policies are bad. McCain does have a reputation as a maverick, and that's going to be a help. For him, a winning strategy is to emphasize a shrinking of Washington (thus lessening the need for tax dollars) and that he'll act in the best interests of the people. For Obama, it's change without specifics, and keep Wright et. al. on another continent if possible. Unfortunately for Obama, he'll have to give out some specifics as we go towards November.