Sen. John McCain pumps his fist with excitement after the announcement of the results of the California Presidential Primary at his primary night command post in Phoenix, Ariz., Feb. 5, 2008. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia)
by Mark Silva
Now that stakes are so high for Sen. John McCain in the campaign for the Republican Party’s presidential nomination, the willingness of conservatives in his party to rally around someone who hasn’t sounded all the right conservative chords is critical.
So tomorrow, as McCain and rival Mitt Romney appear before another Conservative Political Action Conference at a hotel in Washington – along with Vice President Dick Cheney – it will more than illuminating to see how the candidates are received.
Craig Shirley, author of Reagan’s Revolution: The Untold Story of the Campaign that Started it All, managed an independent campaign in support of The Gipper after he lost the Iowa caucuses to George H.W. Bush in 1980. Now, he is among several people identified with Reagan who are promoting McCain’s candidacy: self-styled "Reaganauts'' -- with Jack Kemp among them -- encouraging fellow Republicans, Download file">with a letter, to join the McCain bandwagon.
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“Winning is a good antidote,’’ Shirley told the Tribune today, in response to a question about how McCain can overcome the reticence of the party’s conservatives.
“In this atmosphere it is hard to see,’’ he suggests of the electrified debate among the party’s conservatives, stoked by the likes of Rush Limbaugh on the radio complaining that the party is losing its way. “But once things are settled,’’ Shirley says, “assuming McCain is the presumptive nominee and some radio talk show hosts are faced with the choice of McCain in the White House or Clinton or Obama, they will come around.
“The important thing is for McCain to continue to stress his optimistic, conservative message and keep the lines of communication open,’’ he adds. “Don't forget he also has his supporters including G. Gordon Liddy, Dennis Miller and Mike Gallagher.’’
G. Gordon Liddy?
Keeping lines of communication open in Washington will be job No. 1 for McCain as he heads into the next round of party primaries. Invoking the name of the late Ronald Reagan, and citing his own role in the “Reagan Revolution” will be de rigeur for the day. Paying homage to Liddy, however, not the best idea.
Richard V. Allen, another Reaganaut on the letter who served from 1977-80 as Reagan's chief foreign policy advisor, then first National Security Advisor in the Reagan Administration, also addressed this question about reticence toward McCain. He told the Tribune this today:
"'Reticence' is an interesting word. The question for me, present at the very beginnings of the Modern Mainstream Conservative Movement, and active in every phase of it (and not just the political action component, either) leads me to think that the latter-day (and in some cases self-anointed) judges of who is and who is not a conservative are 'way off base.'
"McCain is every bit a conservative,'' Allen says.
And talk about interesting terms. In this context: 'Latter-day' certainly is one.
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Comments
John McCain would be nothing more than a 3rd term for the Bush Administration
Posted by: Cheryl | February 6, 2008 3:07 PM
Great answer, John. Thanks to last night's wins we won't even need the Rushes and the Hannitys and the Ingrahams. Guess they'll have to take their rapidly dwindling audiences and go home. Poor babies.
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 3:25 PM
John McPotatohead is going to get his warmongering old butt handed to him in the general election.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/itsolivia/2242834046/
Posted by: John E | February 6, 2008 4:04 PM
Mark, your wisecrack about G. Gordon Liddy is surprising, in that it shows that you are as ignorant about his post-Watergate career as the average joe is. For over a decade, GGL has been the most articulate and well-reasoned conservative voice on the airwaves. He doesn't get a lot of ink if only because he doesn't resport to headline-grabbing shock jock tactics like Rush, Coulter, Ingraham, etc. You should check him out for a few days.
Posted by: Tim1979 | February 6, 2008 4:10 PM
"MCCAIN SPEAKS"
MR. AGENT OF INTOLERANCE, MR. KEATING FIVE HIMSELF NOW DECLARES HIMSELF "RONALD REAGON" CHEERLEADER #1.
OH THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT POVERTY YOU GAVE. OH THANK YOU FOR IRAN CONTRA
OH THANK YOU FOR COMING TO MY RESCUE. OH THANK YOU GREAT RONALD REAGAN FOR COVERING UP MY DIRTY LITTLE TRAILS. OH THANK YOU FOR GIVING ME THE SKILLS TO CIRCUMVENT THE LAW AS THOU DID.
GIVE ME A BREAK. WHY NOT JUST LET "SATAN" RUN FOR THE PRESIDENCY AND LET US ALL JUST GET US "TATOO" AND BE HAPPY.
YES, A SKYWATCH, RUDY GIUILIANI BIOMETRIC WATCH OR A H-2A Z PATCH SO WE CAN PICK SOME COTTON AGAIN IN THIS COUNTRY.
Posted by: Roger Morris | February 6, 2008 4:12 PM
"MCCAIN SPEAKS"
SURE I'M A MILE OFF FROM THE REST OF YOU CONSERVS.
BUT WINNING IS WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT. I WON, I WON, I WON, AND IT WAS BECAUSE OF THE "SURGE" AND THE FACT THAT NOW THE NEW X GENERAL PATRAEUS 0010.
EVEN THOUGH, EVEN THOUGH, HE WILL NOW BE REPLACED WITH SOMEONE ELSE BECAUSE DICK CHENEY WANTS A NEW FACE ON THE LIES AND TRIBULATIONS THAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON'T HEAR, SEE, OR EVEN ARE ALLOWED TO THINK ABOUT.
DO YOU THINK JOHN MCCAIN HAS ATTENDED ANOTHER FUNERAL SINCE HE SAT THERE IN FRONT OF NATIONAL TELEVISION MAKING FABRICATED REMARKS ABOUT
"PAT TILLMAN"
SHHHHHHHH DON'T SAY THAT!
Posted by: Roger Morris | February 6, 2008 4:21 PM
So, according to all the Fox/RNC/UpChuck/Willard/John D/Jerry White from Springfield talking points, we will have, in November, the choice between a liberal and a liberal.
Thank God America! You have come to your senses.
Those stooge attacks on McCain from me, John E, and other liberal agitators has paid off. We got the Repimplicans to select a liberal.
hahahahahahahahahahaha!!!
Posted by: C.Morris | February 6, 2008 7:18 PM
Willard as president would be the same thing as electing Bush to a third term.
Posted by: Kevin | February 6, 2008 8:25 PM
Alternate Caption;
...nah,,,too easy...
Posted by: C.Morris | February 6, 2008 10:05 PM
Willard as president would be ... whatever the polls tell him to be that particular day.
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 10:34 PM
I am sick and tired of old John McCain bashing Rush and all conservatives as though it's our fault that he is a fraud. He is for amnesty,anti free speech, taxing gas by 50 cents a gallon to recognize Algore's global warming religion read Human Events John and see what you have been up too. IL, NY, NJ won't be for him in the fall.I would like to see Romney lock and load and refuse to budge let's go to the GOP convention and broker it. Let's lose this liberal. Jerry White, Springfield, IL
Posted by: Jerry White | February 7, 2008 9:25 AM
Willard as president would be ... whatever the polls tell him to be that particular day.
Posted by: Jeff | February 6, 2008 10:34 PM
Just as McCain has done the last four years with Boy George/little dick and the rest of the extreme wing nuts.(Bob Jones).
McCain sold his straight talk express to the Devil!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | February 7, 2008 9:48 AM
Jerry, it's your fault that you and Rush are frauds, not McCain's.
You CLAIM to be a real conservative but support a candidate who was pro-abortion, pro raising taxes, and pro socialized medicine when he was Massachusetts governor and who said "I don't want to go back to Reagan-Bush" and "I didn't want to go to Vietnam" in 1994 and now claims not going is his biggest regret.
It's your own fault you've backed the empty suit Romney. Everyone with half a brain knows that McCain is ten times as conservative as Romney. So, yes, let's lose the liberal Romney. The voters have already spoken (what Republican can't win a single southern state this deep into the primaries?).
Lock, load, and broker that, Mr. Talk Radio puppet.
Posted by: Jeff | February 7, 2008 10:23 AM
Anonymous, even though you shouldn't be allowed to post I'll answer you.
McCain opposed Bush on Rumsfeld's strategy for Iraq and called for the surge three years before Bush finally fired Rumsfeld and implemented it.
When McCain stuck his neck out and supported the surge it the polls were against it 2-1 and he said "I'd rather lose an election than a war."
So your post that McCain "sold his soul to the devil" and will do whatever the polls say, like Romney, is, how to put this, well, fiction. Period.
Posted by: Jeff | February 7, 2008 10:56 AM
Jerry,
Check out these exit polls from California, you know that big state where McCain trounced Romney. There are so many of them, I understand how you might lose track.
The exit polls reported that 6 in 10 Republican voters identified themselves as conservative. Yet Romney drew only 39 percent of those people, with Huckabee, again, draining away 14 percent. Clearly, Romney's reputation as a weathervane has hurt him with conservative voters. He's done. His campaign is on life support. Join the McCain tidal wave before it's too late.
Posted by: Jeff | February 7, 2008 11:08 AM
"I am sick and tired of old John McCain bashing Rush and all conservatives as though it's our fault that he is a fraud.
Jerry White, from Springfield."
This just gets funnier and funnier.
Looks like in November we will have a choice between a liberal and a liberal, according to the Reich Wing Thought Police.
I guess JM isn't politically correct enough for the ultra-cons.
Posted by: C.Morris | February 7, 2008 11:22 AM