McCain abandons the GOP conservative base

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Senator John McCain struggled down the primary stretch to appeal to the conservative base of the Republican Party who instinctively distrust him.  Even as the presumptive nominee of his party and the only candidate on the ballot in the later primaries, McCain averaged only about 75% of the vote, with a quarter of Republicans casting a protest vote for other candidates.  Campaign 2008: Patchwork Nation: What about John, you know, McCain? | The Christian Science Monitor  This was better than Senator Bob Dole performed in 1996, but below the performance of George Bush in 2000.

Compounding his problem with the Republican conservative base, McCain angered the evangelical Christian wing when he threw his problem pastors, John Hagee and Rod Parsley, under his Double Talk Express a few weeks ago.  McCain rejected and denounced these bigots only after weeks of trying to have it both ways by saying that he did not agree with the pastors’ outrageously offensive statements, but he welcomed their endorsements.  McCain defended these problem pastors because he needed to retain their endorsement, which he had actively sought out, to shore up his relations with the evangelical Christian wing.  When Catholics and Jews demanded that McCain reject and denounce his problem pastors, he finally relented.  Evangelical Christian followers of Hagee and Parsley cannot be too happy about being thrown under the bus in favor of Catholic and Jewish voters who are apparently more important to McCain’s election strategy.  (Parsley was critical to Bush’s narrow win in Ohio in 2004).

McCain followed up this misstep by reviving his global warming environmentalism that he had previously abandoned during the GOP primaries.  McCain’s views on addressing climate change play well among independents and Democrats, but most of the GOP base either disagrees with him about the issue or just has little interest in it.  Global warming fades from McCain stump speech – Jonathan Martin’s Blog – Politico.com  McCain’s attempt to revive this issue did not play well with the conservative base, many of whom dismiss global warming as "junk science."  FOXNews.com – Junk Science: McCain’s Embarrassing Climate Speech – Opinion

McCain topped off this series of embarrassing missteps on Tuesday night with a speech that was universally criticized as a disaster, even by his loyal cheerleaders at FOX News:

The presumptive Republican nominee is getting some scathing reviews from his fellow GOPers for what they have described as his less than fantastic address Tuesday night in New Orleans.

First, it was the subject of a long debate on Fox News. “This is John McCain at his oratorical best?” asked host Brit Hume. The Weekly Standard’s Bill Kristol, also on Fox, agreed. “If this election is about speeches, Obama wins,” he said…

The reviews haven’t been any kinder at National Review’s blog, The Corner, where writer Andy McCarthy poses a rhetorical question this morning: “Would you rather, a) watch last night’s McCain speech or b) be waterboarded?” Columnist Jonah Goldberg writes that “substance aside” Obama “crushed” McCain in all the other ways that matter. “Aesthetically, politically, rhetorically, etc, it boiled down to Godzilla versus Bambi,” Goldberg writes. “And, amazingly enough, McCain was Bambi.”

Most talking heads focused on McCain’s theme that "I am not a Bush third term." What the talking heads failed to recognize was McCain’s attempt to revive his mythical "maverick" image from his 2000 campaign in his speech to appeal to independents and Democrats.  McCain risks alienating his conservative base in the process:

The 27% of dead-enders who think George W. Bush is doing a dandy job just got thrown to the wolves by John McCain in a speech that even Fox News panned…

John McCain pretended to be the candidate of change, and pretended that Barack Obama was the status quo candidate. That incompetence was the problem with the Bush administration. That he, McCain, is the green candidate with a green background. That John McCain will take the country in a new direction, different than where Republicans have gone before. And John McCain knew it all along.

Say what? Does that mean that Republicans will abandon the President because McCain thinks that this administration is incompetent and has led us astray for eight years? Why would Republicans who like Bush abandon both of you?

The Republican Base, Abandoned Daily Kos: State of the Nation

Seven years ago, of course, McCain was likening himself in public to Luke Skywalker, waving light sabers on stage at rallies and comparing his party’s establishment to the Death Star. He would say such things as, "My party has become captive to special interests." He would cite a bumper sticker that read the Christian Right Is Neither.’"  But in 2008 McCain’s friend Senator Lindsey Graham reassured conservative voters that "This is not Luke Skywalker here. This is a totally different campaign."  In the world of the GOP elite… it’s a form of praise: No, no, don’t worry, McCain’s with the empire now.  Death Star 

McCain indeed crossed over to the dark side during the Bush years to try to appeal to the conservative base of the Republican Party.  McCain campaigned for the reelection of George Bush in 2004, and he voted to support Bush 95% of the time in 2007 and 100% of the time in 2008 (when he bothered to show up to work).

But now that the Republican primaries are over, McCain is flip-flopping once again to revive his mythical "maverick" image, fighting the Death Star of the GOP establishment special interests as the candidate of change.  This will only alienate conservatives as it did in 2000.

McCain is trying to have it both ways: "I am a loyal conservative" to his Republican base, and "I am an independent maverick" to independents and cross-over Democrats.  He can’t do both.  This dichotomy of messages cannot be maintained over a long campaign.  McCain will either alienate the conservative base of the Republican Party who instinctively distrust him, or the independents who still think of him as the independent maverick from 2000 will finally come to realize that McCain 2008 ain’t the McCain 2000.

Finally, any designs McCain had on capturing a sliver of the African-American vote in this election evaporated entirely on Tuesday night.  It was politically tone-deaf to deliver an attack speech on Barack Obama on the very night of an historically significant event in American history.  A smart politician would have simply congratulated Senator Obama on achieving his party’s nomination and acknowledged the historical significance of the first African-American nominee for president in American history.  Being magnanimous would have cost him nothing, and he could have delivered his speech later in the week.  But Grandpa crabby pants just cannot control the McNasty side of his personality.  In the end, it will prove to be his undoing.