McCain’s Not First Hope, But Best Hope

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin

By the time Sen. John McCain stepped onstage Thursday, it was clear to the thousands of conservative activists in the Washington hotel ballroom that he was going to be the Republican nominee for president.

But that doesn’t make him their kind of guy.

McCain, a decorated war hero and outspoken senator, has long enjoyed a maverick reputation. He earned it by bucking the party establishment, daring to oppose tax cuts and, with his "Straight Talk Express" standing up to the party base in the 2000 primary campaign against George W. Bush.

Then, with his eyes on the 2008 presidential contest, McCain tried in recent years to reverse that image, stressing his dedication to core conservative principles and his roots in the Republican Party.

The sales pitch did not work so well. So, when his campaign flailed this summer, McCain returned to the Straight Talk Express, again spurning the party’s traditional bases of power. This recent string of primary successes that have made him the GOP front-runner have come largely from independent and moderate voters, fueling conservative fears that McCain seems happy to proceed without them.

As McCain seemed to spurn the conservative base, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, embraced it. With Romney now out of the race, McCain’s awkward fit with the conservative base hung in the air Thursday. McCain smiled and pressed on, urging the crowd to support him, their best hope – if not their first hope — for defeating an energized Democratic Party.

I was a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution.

“I am proud to be a conservative,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference, where just hours before Romney announced he was suspending his campaign. The Arizona senator repeated one of his most-used lines: “I was a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution.”

Romney was the clear choice of most in the room, the closest thing they had this year to the combination of economic conservatism, social conservatism and belief in a strong national defense that defines the conservative movement. Romney won the group’s presidential preference straw poll a year ago — McCain came in fifth — and his departure from the race left many of them devastated.

McCain was humble before them, calling dedicated conservatives “indispensable to the success of the party,” and leaving no doubt that he understood that he needs their support if he is to make it to the White House.

But for these conservatives, among the party’s most active, McCain’s positions on immigration, campaign finance reform and federal judges, as well as his early opposition to President Bush’s tax cuts, are still good reasons to distrust him.

McCain paused several times to acknowledge those differences. “I’ve made many mistakes, you can attest to that,” he said, before quickly adding, “you need not.” But he urged them to look beyond those splits, to focus on the many core issues they agree on — like lower taxes, a strong national defense, the importance of conservative judges and opposition to abortion rights.

“We are arguing about highly consequential things,” McCain said, looking ahead to the general election campaign and the Democrats. “I intend to contest these issues on conservative grounds.”

McCain invoked Ronald Reagan several times. Like Reagan, he must convince people who did not agree with him that they can trust him. For Reagan, the issue was whether he was too extreme. But for McCain, it is a lurking fear among conservatives that if they help elect him, he will only go on to betray them with his maverick ways when he enters the White House.

“I am not in the habit of making promises to my country that I do not intend to keep,” McCain said, trying to reassure them.

McCain also repeated a warning Reagan made to the same conference in 1975, that “a political party cannot be all things to all people,” implicitly urging them to come together, even around what many may think is an imperfect nominee.

But the repeated invocations of Reagan, a hero of the conservative movement, also served to underscore how disappointed many Republicans are with their choice of presidential candidates this year.

Al Regnery, a conservative author and publisher, said these were “trying times, when we’re each looking for a candidate we can support.”

“Everybody wants to be another Ronald Reagan,” said Lou Cannon, the respected Reagan biographer. Cannon said the top Republican candidates each had elements of Reagan – McCain shares his patriotism, Romney his leadership skills and Mike Huckabee, his self-deprecating humor. “Maybe if you had them all together, you’d have a Reagan," Cannon said. "But I’m not sure.”

Some Republicans in the room showed they were ready to support McCain and hope that he can carry them to victory. “You have to deal with what is there,” said Dick Armey, the former House majority leader.

Jim DeMint, a South Carolina senator who had endorsed Romney, was more enthusiastic. “One of the mistakes conservatives made was criticizing John McCain and not rallying around a candidate,” he said. “Our only chance to keep Obama or Hillary from the presidency is to empower Sen. McCain to carry our conservative values.”

Conference officials moved quickly to clear the hotel ballroom of the "Romney for President" balloons, red foam mitts and the signs that Romney supporters had held — only a few were waved in the air when McCain spoke.

Barbara Bowie Whitman, an Alexandra, Va., resident, was still wearing her Romney sticker when McCain finished speaking, and she was lukewarm on McCain. “I’m not going to support one of the other senators,” she said, refusing to follow the lead of Ann Coulter, the conservative writer, who said she would vote for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton because she is more conservative than McCain.

Whitman said that if Romney’s name is still on the ballot when she goes to the polls on Tuesday for her state’s primary, she would vote for him — despite his withdrawal from the race.

Without that choice, she said she would vote for McCain. What worries her about him? “Since he’s going to be our nominee," she said, "I’m not going to discuss my worries any more.”