Obama-McCain meeting: It was about Mitch McConnell

The Wall Street Journal's Kimberly A. Strassel analyzes John McCain's overhyped summit with Barack Obama in Chicago.

Contrary to most reporting, Mr. Obama's meeting with his rival wasn't aimed at a cabinet post, or even at a show of national healing. It was directed, pure and simple, at co-opting Mr. McCain's help against what Mr. Obama understands is now his biggest obstacle: Senate Minority Leader McConnell.

Cynical? Nah. If Mr. Obama has demonstrated anything, it is that he always has a smart eye on the future. He knows his big agenda is headed straight for the bitter trenches of the Senate. Democrats aren't likely to get the 60 seats they need to automatically cut off a filibuster. They will have to pick off Republicans.

Standing in the way is Mr. McConnell, one of the shrewdest Senate operators in recent history, and a man who knows the institution inside-out. He also knows what his members want, and what he can demand in return.

The minority leader is already crafting ways to keep his caucus together to block Mr. Obama's more destructive proposals. If the new president wants 60 votes, he's going to have to fight for them, vote for vote.

It's hard to say how successful John McCain will be, if he chooses that path, in co-opting McConnell. The two senators are not close, and the Kentuckian was a bitter foe of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Bill.

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