McCain winning the endorsement primary

NY Times:

Senator John McCain and Mitt Romney waged a long-distance war on Friday over who was the real Republican as Mr. McCain released his first national television commercial, “True Conservative,” and Mr. Romney’s campaign attacked him for his “straight talk detour” into the favorite causes of the Democratic Party.

With only four days before a virtual national primary on Tuesday, Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney, the main Republican contenders, had different but urgent reasons for wooing conservatives.

For Mr. Romney, trailing Mr. McCain in national polls despite spending tens of millions of dollars of his own money on the race, his appeal to conservatives represents perhaps a last-ditch attempt to salvage his candidacy.

For Mr. McCain, who is rapidly making the transition from maverick Republican to front-runner, winning over at least some of the conservatives who distrust him would help him unite his party for the fight against Democrats in November.

“I know I’ve got a lot of work to do,” Mr. McCain told reporters on Friday, when he said he was not a regular member of the radio audience of Rush Limbaugh, one of his most vocal critics on the right.

“I don’t listen to him,” Mr. McCain said on his plane as he flew from an airport rally in St. Louis to one in Chicago. “There’s a certain trace of masochism in my family, but not that deep.”

Still, in an attempt to assure the right that there is safety in numbers, Mr. McCain’s campaign announced endorsements almost hourly on Friday from well-known conservatives. Among them were Theodore B. Olson, the former solicitor general who supported the Bush administration’s agenda on legal and regulatory issues before the Supreme Court, and Steve Forbes, a son of the Forbes magazine founder Malcolm Forbes and a former presidential candidate. On Thursday, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas endorsed Mr. McCain.

Mr. McCain, of Arizona, who has been wooing former Gov. George E. Pataki of New York, a moderate, said Friday that he also anticipated a major endorsement in that state.

“In a multiperson race with people running to your right, you’re not going to get all the conservative voters,” said Charles Black, a senior adviser to Mr. McCain. “But you’ll get enough to win.”

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McCain could help himself if he could assure conservatives that Phil Gramm and Jack Kemp who endorsed him earlier would have his ear on tax and economic policies. He could also do himself a favor if he would listen to what has made conservatives like Rush Limbaugh are saying. His failure to understand or even comprehend their concerns is going to cost him in the general election if he does not start listening to their positions on issues.

They are not going to be persuaded by a self serving commercial on whether he is a conservatives. It is his positions on certain issues that are not conservative and he needs to understand what they are saying. President Bush had the knack of at least understanding where his conservative opponents were coming from. All the big name endorsements are not going to persuade conservative talk show hosts.

If McCain somehow wins the nomination and the election, he will continue to be opposed by conservatives in much the same way Hillary Clinton would be, especially if he maintains his goofy position on the environment and other liberal issues. The big difference is that he want have anyone to cover his back the way Hillary will with liberal groups and media.

Elizabeth Holmes at the Wall Street Journal also covers the endorsement primary, and paints a grim picture for Romney. He also mentions Ann Coulter's emotional reaction to a McCain nomination. There is a certain theory among some conservatives, including Rush Limbaugh that It is better to see the failure of liberalism with Democrats in power than with Republicans.

However, I think the greatest set back we could give liberalism is to win the war, and that want happen with a Democrat president and it would happen with McCain. I don't like him and want endorse him, but I want ever vote for a Democrat because I know they want to lose this war. I will vote for someone who wants to win because defeating the enemy will also be a defeat for liberalism. A vote for Democrats would also be a sellout to the troops who have sacrificed so much to help us defeat this enemy.

Liberalism has wrapped itself in a desperate attempt to lose the war in Iraq and in some cases the war against the Islamic supremacist. They want to use a defeat as an argument against the use of force in any future confrontations. But, a victory will not only rob them of that argument, but will prove that not every insurgency is a quagmire. A victory will also make it less likely that adversaries will challenge us with insurgencies and make it more likely that a credible use of force will make them negotiate an agreement.