Think about it: One month ago there was no visible way John McCain could have galvanized the conservative base of the Republican party. Let's face it; they were down and out. They couldn't find a conservative voice to rally behind during the primary season, and they were certain John McCain wasn't it.
It is here I will point out one of my least prescient writings ever back in March 2007: McCain's Iran Contra
McCain's stubborn refusal to face up to the unpopularity of his assault on free speech rights will ultimately doom his presidential aspirations: His long, slow, agonizing bus trip to what the Daily Show calls "crushed-in-the-primaries-ville."
But it doesn't have to be this way. McCain should pull a page from Ronald Reagan's Presidential history and perform the Iran-Contra mea culpa. He should go before conservative audiences and say something like:
"When I began the legislative process that was to become the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act I truly believed there was a great problem afflicting our country with unregulated expenditures poisoning our political process. There were some who worried that taking such a path would erode our precious First Amendment rights to free speech. At the time I disagreed with those that took that view. I thought it was a false dichotomy being proposed by the critics and that our freedoms would not be put in danger by what I was advocating.
Now, five years later, we can see the fruits of this approach...of my approach...and I am forced to admit that my critics were right. Please know, I never would have undertaken this effort if I had thought it would infringe upon the sacred rights we enjoy as citizens of this great country. But I, with great humility, must admit that that is exactly what has happened.
I will dedicate myself, whether as a Senator or as the President, to restoring the free speech rights my well-meaning but deeply flawed legislation has damaged.
And to all of those who have argued with me over years on this subject I want to add: Thank you for your steadfast defense of our Constitution and our liberties. I finally get it."
In the end it will all boil down to a syllogism:
McCain will never be the Republican nominee without saying saying like the preceding.
McCain will never say anything like the preceding. (He is simply too egotistical I believe.)
Therefore, McCain will never be the Republican nominee.
Well, obviously McCain did find a path to the nomination, but that had more to do with the inability of other candidates to catch fire than anything else. The basic antipathy I pointed out remained, and it always presented a stumbling block going forward.
And you know what? The pick of Sarah Palin alone would not have been enough to turn that base around and get them on board with a McCain ticket. Something more was needed...but what?
What they needed was a miracle...just like Alan Rickman's character in Die Hard. "You need a miracle? I give you the F...B...I!" But where Gruber needed the FBI to supply his miracle, all John McCain needed was the MSM.
The media's clumsy attacks on Sarah Palin and her family have done what John McCain could never do, i.e. get the base to look beyond their policy differences with the candidate and paint them as being in a fight together. They can finally identify with McCain.
I didn't think it was possible.
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