The Republican consultant had it all figured out.

By Michael Tackett

The Republican consultant had it all figured out.

His candidate: The hero. Wounded in war, stand-up guy, the real face of a generation. His opponent: No military service. Suspicious activity in his past.

He had an unofficial slogan in mind: The patriot vs. the punk.

He said this in 1996, when Bob Dole, the last leader of the World War II generation to seek the presidency, was facing Bill Clinton, who avoided the draft during Vietnam and protested the war, in a race that Dole would lose by a near-landslide.

It’s not that the consultant had the wrong framing. But he had no good fix on what really motivates voters.

Last week we saw, repeatedly, the same kind of argument being offered, only this time it seemed to be coming from both sides. A supporter of Barack Obama’s had the temerity to question the national security expertise of John McCain, the son of admirals who also was a prisoner of war in Hanoi for more than five years.

If the election were merely a function of who was the better warrior or flag waver, McCain would have an easy time. But in the last four presidential elections, the candidate with the greater military credentials lost.

Patriotism is fairly easy to demagogue. Just recall the photos in which Obama was shown not holding his hand over his heart during the national anthem. Or the scurrilous allegations that he didn’t wear a flag pin. Then there is the stubborn fact that his father was Muslim and gave him the middle name that in the Muslim world is as common as, well, John.

So it’s no surprise that some think a race to the bottom — focusing on non-issues — is the path to victory.

Obama’s patriot game

Obama, clearly mindful of that, started a patriot game of his own with a speech in Independence, Mo., where he tried to be the arbiter of what is and is not out of bounds on the patriotism debate. As he has done several times in the campaign, he delivered a forceful, coherent and convincing argument. At least as long as no one else was talking.

But that is not the world he lives in, and so the talking continued. And he wasn’t helped when his own surrogates, such as former Gen. Wesley Clark—who may have talked himself out of consideration for vice president — started to make some sleights about McCain’s experience in Vietnam. The distressing part of this is that Obama and McCain claim to be where they are in part because they were willing to take the high road and not engage in overtly personal attacks. So far, that is not what is happening.

What do voters care about? Gas prices over $4 a gallon. A stock market in bear territory. Homes in foreclosure. Oh, and hot wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a cold one with Iran.

Instead, we keep hearing the hollow, hectoring calls about each candidate’s sense of country. Obama and McCain keep talking about rising above it. Now would be a good time to start.

X Michael Tackett is the Chicago Tribune’s Washington bureau chief.