McCain Mr. Right?

Adrian Wooldridge:

JOHN McCAIN has gone from Republican front-runner to road kill to front-runner again over the past year. Now, after Mitt Romney’s victory in the Michigan primary on Tuesday, Mr. McCain’s candidacy is again back up in the air — and with it the entire Republican presidential race.

There is a reason Republican primary voters are so confused by Mr. McCain. He is a Republican who is disliked by the hard core of his party but loved by many independents and Democrats. He is almost universally regarded as a moderate and a maverick, a combination that independents love and conservatives loathe. The trouble with this widespread understanding of Mr. McCain’s politics is that it is entirely wrong.

Mr. McCain’s willingness to squabble with his fellow party members makes him look more like a moderate than he really is — which is why independents and Democrats turned out to vote for him in New Hampshire and Michigan. He has certainly squabbled with the conservative establishment. He initially voted against the Bush tax cuts. He denounced Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson as “agents of intolerance.” He battled with his fellow Republicans over pork-barrel spending and campaign finance reform. He feuded with the White House over torture and Guantánamo.

But there is a radical difference between disagreeing with your fellow conservatives and fudging on basic principles. Mr. McCain has a solid record on the defining principles of the modern conservative movement — traditional values, the free market and national defense — a record that is far more solid on these core beliefs than Mr. Romney’s.

In fact, Mr. McCain’s squabbles with his fellow conservatives have almost always been in the name of fundamental conservative principles. He opposed torture because he thought it was a violation of the American tradition of respect for human life and human rights. He opposed President Bush’s tax cuts because he thought the goal of small government required Congress to cut spending also. He excoriated pork-barrel spending and unlimited campaign donations because he thinks these practices institutionalize bad (and big) government. He promoted immigration reform because he thought the “conservative” alternative (encouraging illegal immigrants to go home) is unworkable economically and dubious morally. Business interests, which have been growing disenchanted with the Republicans, would hardly disagree.

Mr. McCain’s basic political insight — that there is a distinction between the constituencies in the conservative movement and the principles of conservative governance — provides the Republican Party with the best available solution to its problem this November: the unpopularity of the Republican establishment. Not only can he argue that the establishment has put expedience above principle, but he can also tout his own record in battling that establishment.

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I don't think this guy has the same definition of conservatism that most conservatives have. McCain is untrustworthy on several core conservative principals. Campaign finance, tax cuts and the environment to name just a few. He is good on the war and on pork. He may be the best we can do this year, but he will not be embraced by conservatives.

His position on enhanced interrogation will get people killed. His joining the Gang of 14 on judges was a huge mistake which led to the decline in support for Republicans. He is a mixed bag that is still better than any of the Democrats but he is not a conservative.