John McCain's Sins

Every Republican presidential candidate calls the name of Ronald Reagan in order to bless his campaign and endear himself to their conservative base voters. No one needs to do this more urgently than the likely Republican presidential nominee, John McCain. McCain has been winning primaries right and left and has all but closed out his nearest rival Mitt Romney. However, at the moment, conservatives (whose support will be crucial to winning the general election) seem to be saying to McCain, “Mr. you are no Ronald Reagan.” Polls show that voters, who describe themselves as conservative, prefer Romney and Mike Huckabee by a solid margin.

What do conservatives have against McCain? He has after all a solid conservative voting record. McCain is a strong Reagan-like war hawk. He supported the war in Iraq and President Bush’s troop surge. He is a fights deficit spending and abortion rights. But, McCain has committed a number of deadly sins which conservatives may never forgive, even when he becomes the Republican candidate for president.

Here’s a list of McCain’s sins. He opposed the Bush tax cuts. He said he could never vote for a tax cut that primarily favored the rich. That sounded a little too much like a Democrat for most conservatives. Now, McCain says he favors the tax cuts and will fight to make them permanent. Politics does indeed cause people to rethink their opinions.

McCain actively opposed a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.

He mentioned that he was a little worried about global warming, which in the mind of conservatives put him in league with the despised Al Gore.

McCain opposed 527 issue-advocacy group campaign spending. Issue advocacy groups known as 527s are the billionaire boys clubs of politics -- they're created specifically to skirt campaign laws and give some of the richest people in the country a way to buy influence in American politics. McCain -- to his credit -- has opposed them. Conservatives love them.

McCain’s most egregious sin was his sponsorship of an immigration reform bill, which conservatives saw as providing illegal immigrants with a path to citizenship.

In 2004, McCain said he would give thought to the idea of becoming John Kerry’s running mate.

Finally, McCain was endorsed two individuals considered an abomination by conservatives: Rudy Giuliani and Arnold Schwarzenegger and most awful by the hated New York Times.

So the question arises: When McCain finally secures the Republican nomination, will conservatives forgive him of all these sins and offer their support. My guess is they will not. Surely, they will not go as far as Ann Coulter, who said if McCain got the nomination she might campaign for Hillary Clinton. What conservatives will do is sit on their hands throughout the general election. Conservatives likely won’t actively oppose McCain, but neither will they enthusiastically support him.

In the end, however, their support is unlikely to matter a great deal. This general election is almost surely going to go to who ever the Democrats nominate. Unless something drastic happens between now and the election in November, Democrats are going to win this election. Most Americans are crying out for change. None of the Republican candidates, surely not McCain, is likely to bring about a great deal of change.