The Oregonian
01-21-07
McCAIN and the SOCIAL CONSERVATIVES
David Reinhard
When successful Republican presidential candidates talk about their base,
they're usually talking about the GOP's social conservatives. When Arizona Sen.
John McCain talks about his base, he's referring to the mainstream media.
Which helps explain two things. One, why McCain was not a successful
Republican presidential candidate eight years ago. Two, why he's taken steps
over the last few years to get right with the religious right.
Will it work? As Democrats cogitate over Barack Obama's challenge to frontrunner Hillary Clinton, will the new McCain complicate matters for the old McCain
and threaten his front-runner status among Republicans?
For most successful candidates, politics is about addition, not subtraction. This
presidential campaign, however, McCain is involved in something of a zero sum
game. Securing a traditional GOP base could come at the expense of losing his
old media base.
In 2000, his admirers in the mainstream media loved the tough-talking war hero
of "Straight Talk Express." The Arizona maverick opposed George Bush and
famously railed against "agents of intolerance" like Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson
and other conservative religious leaders. Since then, he's been a conquering
hero of Jon Stewart and "The Daily Show," a Republican worthy of puff-ball
questioning. But McCain has committed two unpardonable sins in the eyes of the
media clerisy. He has backed Bush's Iraq war to the hilt and gone out of his way
to make up with Falwell and religious conservatives. Sacre bleu!
McCain's wooing of GOP social conservatives has not been pretty to watch. And,
if recent developments are any guide, the effort might prove unproductive.
Recently, perhaps the most influential Christian conservative gave McCain a stiffbristled brushoff. "Speaking as a private individual, I would not vote for John
McCain under any circumstances," said Focus on the Family's James Dobson in
a radio interview. "He is not in favor of traditional marriage and I pray that we will
not get stuck with him."
McCain's alleged opposition to traditional marriage would probably astonish the
most determined McCain watcher. Didn't he, after all, favor a traditional marriage
measure that was on the Arizona ballot last November? Why, yes, he did. But
right before Dobson let loose, his radio-show host had run a clip of McCain telling
"Hardball" host Chris Matthews, "I think, uh . . . I think that gay marriage should
be allowed if there's a ceremony kind of thing, if you wanna call it that . . . I don't
have any problem with that."
McCain had, indeed, uttered those exact words before the Iowa State
University crowd last fall, but -- well, isn't there always a but? A quotation
yanked out of context or something said in humor is treated seriously. In this
case, "but" only highlights McCain's problem courting the GOP's traditionalvalues base.
In the same sentence that Dobson's radio interviewer found so damning, McCain
had appended his own but: ". . . but I do believe in preserving the sanctity of the
union between man and woman." Yes, it made for an illogical sentence, and
McCain and his handler realized they had a damage-control problem. After the
next break, a student asked about a farm issue and McCain answered it. But
before moving to the next question he said, "Could I just mention one other
thing? On the issue of the gay marriage, I believe if people want to have private
ceremonies, that's fine. I do not believe that gay marriages should be legal."
The students knew they were watching a grown man kiss a Pander Bear and
booed. Better to just tell everybody what you really believe rather than try to
please everybody.
What we now know, thanks to a penetrating McCain profile by Todd Purdum in
February's Vanity Fair, is what happened before and after McCain's do-over on
gay marriage. During the first break, his consultant John Weaver had moved in
and whispered in the senator's ear. And after McCain had issued his
clarification? Let's have Purdum tell it, because he was there: "Moments later,
McCain remounts the stage for the program's final segment, and he bores into
Weaver, standing quietly in the wings, with a cold look that seems to mingle
irritation at Weaver's whispered advice with regret that he took it, and demands,
almost hisses, 'Did I fix it? Did I fix it?' "
Last week, Dobson provided an important answer. It could even prove the final
answer.
David Reinhard, associate editor, can be reached at 503-221-8152 or
davidreinhard@news.oregonian.com.
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