Pajamas Media
By John Hawkins

It’s not easy being John McCain these days. The self-styled “maverick” faces a classic Catch-22, which he will have to somehow resolve if he wants to be elected president.

As we conservatives see it, McCain has gotten this far in his political career by kicking us in the teeth for the amusement of the mainstream media, which has repaid him for the entertainment by treating him with kid gloves and hyping him as a principled maverick.

Whether one agrees or disagrees with this perception, it is clear that now that McCain has captured the Republican nomination, he faces a dilemma.

The problem in a nutshell: he desperately needs the backing of the very conservatives he has infuriated time and time again over the last few years. We’re not talking about tepid support either. John McCain needs conservatives to pour money into his campaign, and to rabidly defend him when he’s under attack — and of course, vote for him. Achieving this won’t be easy. In order to patch things up with conservatives, McCain will need to cater to us by making meaningful gestures that show his heart is in the right place and by shifting his positions a bit on key issues, in order to placate our very valid concerns about him.

BUT — if and when he actually attempts to start trying to reach out to conservatives, he risks losign what made him attractive in the first place; McCain’s appeal to independents and moderate Democrats is directly based on liberals in the mainstream media saying nice things about him based on the fact that he DOESN’T try make conservatives happy.

The Article

ShareThis