Wednesday, January 30, 2008

RE: McCain and CPAC   [Mark Hemingway]

I'm getting messages from a lot of people that are second guessing whether McCain should go to CPAC. In part, because it's not entirely fair to say that CPAC is a good cross-section of Republican and conservative voters. I agree with that sentiment, however given what happened last year at CPAC, the media narrative of McCain being at odds with the conservative base will be strongly correlated to what happens at CPAC this year — especially now that McCain is the likely nominee.

But whatever happens at CPAC, it needs to be part of a broader outreach to the elements of the conservative base that distrust McCain. McCain doesn't need to kow-tow to anybody, but a little respect and humility towards his conservative critics would go a long way. 

01/30 02:52 PMShare