The McCain statement on abortion to which you refer–which was actually made in 1999–makes no sense. The comment makes sense if you assume that McCain meant that the country was not ready for a ban on abortion. That is true, and President Bush has said the same thing.

His bad blood with the National Right to Life Committee concerns campaign-finance reform, and doesn’t mean that he disdains social conservatives.

If McCain’s embrace of Rudman counts against him, then so does Bush’s 2000 embrace of Christine Todd Whitman, or for that matter Rudy Giuliani’s embrace of himself.

On judges, McCain has a track record that Giuliani doesn’t have. (Also, regardless of Giuliani’s intent, his nomination would immediately pull the politics of judicial nominations to the left, but that’s an argument for another day.)

Anyway, we’re wandering far afield here. Social conservatives have legitimate gripes against McCain. But the notion that he ”obviously” disdains them isn’t one of them.