McCain Tries to Patch it Up With Conservatives, But is It Too Late?

National Review's Byron York has an interesting take on John McCain's Tuesday night speech. Basically, McCain tried to use the occasion to appease the conservative base of the Republican Party which appears to be stiffening its opposition to him. But is too late for the Arizona Senator to make amends?

When he took the stage here at the Arizona Biltmore Tuesday night, John McCain didn’t know he had won California, or even Missouri. He hadn’t even been able to keep a close eye on the other returns coming in from across the country; less than an hour before appearing at the Biltmore, McCain was attending a fundraiser at a home in Phoenix, proving that there is no time, not even Super Tuesday, when a candidate not named Romney is free from the pressure to raise money. As McCain prospected for cash, his top aides were locked in a room at the Biltmore, writing his speech while the crowd waiting downstairs grew a little restless.

Had McCain known he would win the nation’s biggest state, his victory speech might have been a bit more about, well, victory. As it was, it had no chest thumping and no ringing declarations — and the result wasn’t quite as stirring as Team McCain had hoped.

But McCain’s Super Tuesday speech wasn’t really about Super Tuesday. The heart of it wasn’t about his wins in New York and California and Missouri and Illinois and New Jersey and Arizona and Connecticut and Oklahoma and Delaware.

Posted on Wednesday, February 6, 2008 at 06:56:40 AM
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