WASHINGTON, D.C. — On the day former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race, Senator John McCain addressed the Conservative Political Action Conference here to soothe feathers ruffled by his absence at the same event last year. With Romney's exit, McCain, for all intents and purposes, sewed up the Republican nomination Feb. 7, making support from attendees essential in consolidating the GOP base before November.
Judging from the applause that greeted McCain on entrance, the Republican base is more unified than many would believe. The more than 1,500 people in the audience, the first crowd to greet McCain as their party's presumptive nominee, largely gave a standing ovation, though dissenters near the back booed.
From immigration to campaign finance reform to President Bush's tax cuts, McCain has long rankled conservatives, and few in the audience seemed willing to forget. More, though, seemed willing to forgive, especially after the conciliatory note McCain struck through much of his speech. “I am acutely aware that I cannot succeed (in winning), nor can our party prevail over the challenge we will face from either Senator (Hillary) Clinton or Senator (Barack) Obama, without the support of dedicated conservatives, whose convictions, creativity and energy have been indispensable to the success our party has had over the last quarter century,” McCain said.
McCain also cast himself in the mold of Ronald Reagan, who he said brought him to his first CPAC convention. “I am proud, very proud, to have come to public office as a foot soldier in the Reagan Revolution. And if a few of my positions have raised your concern that I have forgotten my political heritage, I want to assure you that I have not,” he said Feb. 7. McCain used key phrases Republicans wanted to hear, calling himself a “mainstream conservative” and promising to appoint judges in the mold of Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito and John Roberts while saying he will work for the “unborn.”
Perhaps most importantly, McCain used his time in front of the activists he so desperately needs to win over to contrast himself with Clinton and Obama. The Democratic pair, he said, would raise taxes, grow government and withdraw troops from Iraq precipitously, among other positions that would enrage conservatives. “I intend to contest these issues on conservative grounds and fight as hard as I can to defend the principles and positions we share,” he concluded.
Former Virginia Senator George Allen, the man many thought would address this body as the conservative standard-bearer and Republican front-runner, showed up as a special guest before McCain and was one of those to offer forgiveness. “John and I have strong disagreements on many issues,” Allen said, in the middle of a strong endorsement.
“Is John McCain perfect? No. Will we disagree with him sometimes? Absolutely,” said Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who introduced McCain.
The feelings resonate with many: They don't like McCain, but at this point, he's the best option they have left.
Allen was upset in his bid for re-election in 2006, thwarting what would certainly have been a presidential campaign. Instead, Allen stood up to endorse McCain, a one-time rival, for the job he himself once planned to seek. Coburn, a fiscal hawk and hard-line social conservative who was urged this summer to consider a bid for president himself, has emerged as one of McCain's most prominent supporters among the GOP's right-wing base.
McCain's problems with voters who take a hard line on immigration goes back years, though it was exacerbated by a bill the Arizonan pushed with liberal Democrat Ted Kennedy in the Senate in 2007. “The immigration debate of last year did create a stir, and there were a lot of folks who were not happy with Senator McCain or me,” Senator Jon Kyl, McCain's junior colleague and national campaign chairman, told the ~Arizona Capitol Times~ earlier this week.
Said Coburn: “He doesn't have a secret plan to enact blanket amnesty as president. If he did, he knows I can kill it.”
When McCain got to immigration, though, there were prolonged catcalls from the audience.
Arizona's senior senator does strike some chords that are music to conservative ears. That argument relies largely on his record against spending, a record the current president has not duplicated. “We won't have to wait for the last year of a president to see him pick a fight with Congress,” Coburn said, referring to what many Republicans see as a major flaw in the Bush presidency.
Speaking just hours after former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney made his exit from the race from the same podium, McCain said he had called the former rival, who he characterized as “a great governor,” and said the two would sit down together. He did not, his campaign said, directly ask Romney for an endorsement.
After the speech, many in the crowd – which skewed heavily in McCain's favor, judging from stickers, placards and t-shirts – seemed ecstatic to have a presumptive nominee, a mantle McCain can now claim. “The response in there was terrific,” said Frank Donatelli, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign. “He talked about the future. He said there's a place for everybody here in the McCain campaign this fall, and that's what a lot of people wanted to hear.”
Others, though, were not mollified. Ray Pickles, who attended the convention from Virginia, stood in the hotel lobby holding a sign that read, scrawled in permanent marker, “Republicans against McCain.”
“He's taken a number of positions that are really contrary to core Republican beliefs,” Pickles said of McCain. “He's going to destroy the Republican Party. George Bush made it sick. He'll finish it off.”
Pickles said, should McCain get the nomination, he will vote for the Constitution Party nominee.
Megan Ritter, who sported a McCain t-shirt and a sticker for former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee and spent three weeks working for him in Iowa, said she would be happy with McCain on the ticket. “Huckabee has been a better supporter of the pro-life issue. I think he's a stronger supporter of the First Amendment. In every way, I think he's a much more effective communicator.” Still, she said of McCain: “Ninety percent of the time he's a reliable small-government conservative. Ten percent of the time he goes off and does something weird, but that doesn't make him a liberal.”
While the speech seemed to go over well, McCain continued to acknowledge past differences of opinion. “We have had a few disagreements, and none of us will pretend that we won't continue to have a few,” McCain concluded. “But even in disagreement, especially in disagreement, I will seek the counsel of my fellow conservatives.”
To Donatelli, the top adviser, the speech was a first step. “This is a beginning, not an end,” he said. “We have lots of time, you know, to start reaching out to people, make sure that everybody's comfortable with the campaign.” If McCain is to have a chance in November, no matter the contrasts he makes with Clinton or Obama, he's going to need to bring his conversation with conservatives to a successful end sooner rather than later.