McCain Makes Headway With Conservatives

Sounding counterintuitive, the Wall Street Journal reports that John McCain is making inroads with conservatives heading into Super Tuesday:

The Republican presidential campaigning rolls on this weekend, with Sen. John McCain working to make headway with the party's stalwarts and Mitt Romney facing renewed attention on his Mormon faith.

Mr. McCain stepped up his attempts to court the Republican right, scoring a number of high-profile endorsements this week. Yesterday, he received the support of billionaire Steve Forbes as well as former Solicitor General Theodore Olson. Mr. Olson, who served as assistant attorney general in the Reagan administration, represented President Bush in the Supreme Court case Bush v. Gore.

The picture was a bit mixed earlier in the week when Mr. McCain got near-simultaneous endorsements from moderates California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and former New York Mayor and rival Rudy Giuliani, causing some consternation among party conservatives. Some prominent pundits, including Laura Ingraham and former Sen. Rick Santorum, have decried his more liberal votes and come out in favor of Mr. Romney.

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter went a step further, saying that if the race came down to Mr. McCain and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, she would rather see Mrs. Clinton elected.

Polls show Mr. McCain, who won contests in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida, leading nationally by double digits, according to an average compiled by Real Clear Politics, a nonpartisan political-news Web site. The Arizona senator has about 34% of support, compared with 22% for Mr. Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who won Wyoming, Michigan and Nevada. The other contenders, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, have 20% and 5%, respectively.

Perhaps some Malkinite, musket-and-pitchfork conservatives will continue to resist McCain's momentum.

That would be unfortunate, for the national polling picture heading into Tuesday's voting portends a McCain blowout.

This Newsmax article shows McCain leading in 13 of 15 states voting Tuesday where survey data is available. Some big states, with huge delegate counts - like California and New York - show McCain enjoying a double-digit advantage.

(Romney's ahead in Colorado - although ground-level factors in the Rockies may make it a tight race - and Massachusetts - where the data reflect a home state, favorite-son advantage for the former governor.)

Indeed, new reports suggests McCain sees this weekend's campaign as a victory tour, with the Arizona Senator looking beyond Super Tuesday to the general election matchup (here and here).

This news will be indigestible for many among the conservative base.

Consequently, I want to remind readers that I've put out the call for a movement toward national conservative reconciliation.

This year's extremely frontloaded primary system - for its flaws and uncertainties, may indeed be working to produce an early GOP nominee for '08.

Moreover, a consensus is growing that it's time for all Republicans to rally behind their party's standard-bearer, should he finally emerge this week.