IF John McCain wants the Republican nomination, he’s going to have to convince social conservatives he’s one of them.
Here’s what McCain needs to do:
First, in the next week he must schedule a major policy address to lay out his moral and philosophical vision for America. He should do it at Pepperdine, a Protestant college in California.
McCain has a good record on issues important to social conservatives. He needs to start talking it up in no uncertain terms — and link it to his greatest political asset: his history as a Vietnam War hero.
McCain should admit he was cocky as a Navy fighter pilot, but being blown out of the sky taught him how quickly circumstances can change.
The physical and emotional agonies of Communist prison camp forged his character. It taught him the moral duty of suffering courageously for honor, duty, country and principles greater than oneself.
Our country is flying high now, but it could collapse as quickly as the stock-market bubble bursts. The American people sense that we’ve gone soft in our prosperity, and may well respond to McCain’s optimistic stoicism.
Everybody knows McCain has a randy past. He should admit he’s a “sinner” (he has to use the word), and that he has learned the importance of mercy to the fallen.
But there is such a thing as accountability. McCain should link his campaign-finance crusade to contrition over the Keating Five scandal. McCain, who voted to impeach the president, has said that when President Clinton’s sexual dalliances became public, he had the duty to tell the truth.
“Although I may admit to failures in my private life, I have at all times, and to the best of my ability, kept faith with every oath I have sworn to this country,” McCain once said. “I have known some men who kept the faith at the cost of their lives.”
That’s true and beautiful. He should say it again.
McCain must also address at least a handful of specific issues that matter to social conservatives, such as school vouchers (he’s for them). Most importantly, McCain must counter skepticism of his commitment to the unborn.
He should elucidate his 17-year record as a pro-life lawmaker. He opposes using taxpayer money to fund abortion. He would sign a ban on partial-birth abortion. He believes abortion should be legal in cases of rape, incest and when the life of the mother is threatened — a deviation from pro-life orthodoxy, but no different from Bush’s position.
Pro-lifers worry that McCain is unenthusiastic about overturning Roe vs. Wade. Fair enough. McCain grasps, however, the unpleasant truth that this culture is not yet ready to abandon legalized abortion.
Until that day comes, there are many practical things pro-lifers can do. The senator, who adopted a baby from Mother Teresa’s orphanage, supports pro-life crisis pregnancy centers. Pro-lifers who desire a flawlessly pro-life candidate must not allow a good-enough one to become their enemy.
Which brings McCain to his bottom-line appeal to Republicans: he and he alone can win over independent voters and return the White House to the GOP.
Republican voters may like Bush more now, but if he can’t defeat Al Gore in November, where will that leave conservatives? Powerless — and the Supreme Court Gore’s for the picking.
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