ST. PAUL — When he captured the Republican nomination, there
was widespread consensus that the only chance John McCain had to
win the election was to earn the support of skeptical conservatives
and unite the party. Mission accomplished.
In a scene that one could have never imagined just a year — or
even a few months ago — McCain entered the hall at the Xcel Energy
Center here to a rousing, piercing, four-minute ovation.
The man who irritated the conservative base by creating
burdensome campaign finance regulations, opposing the Bush tax
cuts, and pursuing comprehensive immigration reform was given a
hero’s welcome, with chants of U-S-A and signs such as “The
Maverick,” “We love McCain,” and “Straight Talk.”
McCain isn’t generally a great speaker, and he was slow to get
going last night. The early portion of the speech was focused on
reminding everybody of his maverick image: his fights against
corruption and pork-barrel spending, and his advocacy of the surge
strategy in Iraq before it was popular.
The policy portion of his speech was conservative boiler-plate
in favor of low taxes, school choice, and oil drilling.
Though portions of the speech were flat, he ended strong, with a
recount not just of the heroic story of his captivity when he
rejected early release, but of when he was broken under torture and
ashamed, with nothing to fall back on but the counsel of one of his
fellow soldiers, and the love of his country.
His Churchillian rallying cry at the end of the speech brought
the house down. It was delivered with a level of conviction that
few others could muster, because he’s lived it. “Stand up, stand
up, stand up and fight,” he implored the crowd. “Nothing is
inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never
quit. We never hide from history. We make history.”
McCain has spent months reassuring the base that he stands with
them on the most important issues, and the fact that he’s running
against liberal Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden has also
helped.
“I think the positions he’s taken are on the main conservative
positions, and certainly compared to the radical positions of his
opponents give conservatives plenty of reasons to elect him,” Jim
Burnett, a delegate from Arkansas who didn’t consider McCain his
first choice during the primaries said.
But for all his efforts at conservative outreach, there’s no
doubt that the main difference maker was the selection of Alaska
Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, which has been a booster
shot for conservatives who have seen many disappointments over the
last several years.
McCain often had his name mocked as “McPain” and “McLame” by
frustrated conservatives, but following Palin’s speech, Rush
Limbaugh, long a vocal critic of McCain, dubbed him
“McBrilliant.”
Richard Viguerie, the direct mail guru and go to guy when the
media is looking for a disgruntled conservative to quote, has
released several statements praising McCain’s choice.
“A week ago, conservatives and most Republicans were
down-in-the-dumps, listless, unengaged,” Viguerie said. “That lack
of enthusiasm is a thing of the past…thanks to Senator McCain and
Governor Palin, conservatives and Republicans are fired up as they
have not been since Ronald Reagan was president.”
Tom Powers, a delegate from Clanton, Alabama, who supported Mike
Huckabee during the primaries, said that while at first his state’s
delegation didn’t know much about Palin, as they learned more,
their energy level grew.
“On Thursday morning at our breakfast, you could just feel that
energy start to generate,” Powers said. “That’s what we needed. We
were lacking that conservative spark. She’s going to do that. Those
are the people in this party who work. We’re in the trenches for
this party, and she’s going to bring those people back into the
fold and put this party in a strong position for the last 100 yards
of this race.”
With the conventions over, the battle for swing voters —
especially blue-collar workers who eluded Obama in the Democratic
primaries — is under way. While unifying the party itself is not
sufficient to win the election, it certainly means McCain will be
able to count on more foot soldiers.
