If yesterday we all agreed that McCain is the true maverick of the two Presidential candidates, today we can ask: is it really better for a candidate to be a maverick or is it better for a president to be a maverick?
Ronald Brownstein of the National Journal reminds his readers that the maverick sometimes has the political edge, but only before he gets elected:
Cheers have greeted every mention of McCain’s willingness to work with Democrats, his capacity to disagree with leaders from his own party and his determination to steer his own course. None of that won much applause from conservatives and many party regulars last year when they were resisting McCain in the GOP presidential nomination race. And it’s not clear that most Republicans would find those same qualities nearly as admirable next year if McCain wins in November.
But Brownstein predicts that
the only way he could fulfill his pledge to break gridlock would be to reach agreements with Democrats. Inevitably that would require concessions resisted by many Republicans.
Prof. Coleman, in the Pollster.com post I mentioned yesterday, makes a similar assertion–and offers some advice:
[being the maverick] is of course one of the chief aspects of McCain’s legislative life that has historically created problems for him within his own party and among party activists. It is one of the tasks of the Republican convention to convince Republicans of the virtue of that independent streak as a matter of character, even if they disagree with McCain on policy particulars.
I think today one thing can be said with confidence: as far as the convention goes, the mission was indeed accomplished. That is–as Brownstein writes–at least up until McCain gets elected.