Ex-White House players give insight on 2008 race

— -- As the presidential campaign speeds through February, USA TODAY asked two former White House insiders to discuss the state of the race. Democrat Mike McCurry, former spokesman for President Bill Clinton, and Republican Dan Bartlett, former counselor for President Bush, spoke Friday at the J.D. Power convention in San Francisco. Bartlett is not affiliated with a presidential candidate; McCurry backs Hillary Rodham Clinton. The forum was moderated by Susan Page, USA TODAY's Washington Bureau chief. Comments have been edited for space and clarity.

On John McCain's challenge

Dan Bartlett: John McCain has an opportunity, as much as possible, to consolidate his support amongst the Republican Party.

The trick for him will be to do it in an authentic way. One of the big challenges for Mitt Romney — and at the end of the day he couldn't get it over the finish line — was the authenticity issue, whether he was changing his position for some political convenience. That's something that they belabored over and fought back against.

The trick for John McCain, the reason he is attracting some independents and Democrats, is the fact of that 'maverick' title, his willingness to call it as he sees it.

During the primary process in Michigan, he kept to his positions on tax issues. He did it in Iowa when it came to ethanol. In the Florida campaign, and the issue was about national catastrophic insurance coverage, he didn't try to bend in the wind.

It will be important in the next several weeks and months that he stick to that level, and at the same time have an authentic outreach to conservatives.

On Hillary Clinton's challenge

Mike McCurry:There's always a tendency to second-guess and always a tendency to blame the people who were doing the strategy yesterday. They are probably going through some of that.

That always happens inside campaigns. But the resiliency of the group that she has around her and the loyalty that they have, the affection they have for her, will pull them through that moment. They will rally, figure out how they need to go.

They have a very tough road ahead of them. Because if you look through the month of February, and the states that are immediately coming up on the horizon — the Potomac primary (Tuesday in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia) and then Wisconsin — those are states that map more closely to what Obama's natural constituencies (are) looking at. They have a long way to go until March 4th, where they will get to Ohio and Texas. They go a whole month.