It is no secret: John McCain and the conservative base have a rocky relationship. McCain’s ideological unorthodoxy is a never ending source of angst for the base. But more than that, conservatives have always been irked by McCain’s predilection to consort with conservatives’ political enemies — primarily the media, but also Democrats. It drove the conservative base up the wall in 2000 when the “Straight Talk Express” opened itself up to the mainstream media, and McCain became the Republican reporters seemed to like best.
Furthermore, every time McCain’s name is affixed to legislation with one of the foes of conservatism (Kennedy, Feingold, etc.), conservatives cringe. Each time that McCain says “my Democratic friend . . .” it is like nails on a chalkboard for those who consider Democrats the opponents of all they hold dear.
But presidential elections have a way of clarifying things. In the last week or so we have seen McCain bond with the base in new and substantial ways. Why? He took up common cause with them against two things they loathe: the mainstream media and accusations of racism. McCain’s team, smartly I think, has figured out that one way to defuse the media bias is to mock its love affair with Barack Obama, much the way Saturday Night Live did during the primary. So we saw the “media’s got a crush on Obama” ad and the very overt, almost daily digs at the media’s contribution to Obama’s “celebrity” status. McCain is broadcasting a welcome message to conservatives who bemoan that he doesn’t know who his friends are.
But when McCain called out Obama for playing the race card, conservatives really cheered. How often have their views (on everything from opposing racial quotas to insisting on anti-fraud voting measures) been labeled “racist” ? They have noted with a mixture of wry amusement and irritation as Obama declared each and every argument against him to be “inappropriate” or “unacceptable.” So when McCain blew the whistle and said, in effect, “You’re the only guy playing racial politics, Senator Obama,” the base gave a collective whoop. Finally, someone had said “enough.”
The cliché that politics makes strange bedfellows usually applies to politicians of different parties. But in this case it’s an apt description of the bonding that is taking place between McCain and his fellow Republicans in the furnace of a presidential election. The base and McCain need each other and they finally found common ground. There will be plenty of fights and irritations ahead, but for now they are joined in a common defense. And McCain has to thank the astounding overreach by both MSM and Obama for that.
