Did he play to the base? I didn't notice.
Have dynamics within the Republican Party changed, or is this a special campaign cycle, candidate or field? Probably a bit of each. It surely mattered that there were three different varieties of goofball arrayed to McCain's right. But the real answer is that Republican dynamics are changing. Social conservatives are aging and the replacement generations are a different breed. They don't mind seeing a little more skin when they go to the beach, metaphorically speaking. Ten years from now the MTV Generation will start getting its AARP cards.
A year ago I said that, but for his support for the "surge" I thought likely to fail, "McCain seems like not only the strongest candidate on the Republican side, but the strongest overall." He should run very well against the Clintons (I'm test driving the developing pundit convention here) and even conservatives who don't like him won't need much enticement of come vote against the Clintons. Even if he moves to the center, which he'll have plenty of opportunity to do while the Clintons and Obama beat each other about the head and neck with delegate counts and polling in obscure California congressional districts, fighting on maybe even to the convention. Needless to say, McCain's very biography blunts Hillary's (test drive inconclusive) "experienced" pitch and her assiduously-cultivated "I'm tough enough to be Commmander-in-Chief" persona. Obama, with a qualitatively different appeal and no Clintonian ceiling on his potential share of the vote, makes a much more challenging and interesting opponent for McCain.
With this post, I'm debuting my "John McCain" label.
Labels: 2008 presidential campaign, Hillary Clinton, John McCain, MWR: weaver of metaphor
posted at 10:47 PM
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