JOHN MCCAIN seems strangely uneasy at the top. Throughout the Republican primary campaign, he has shown himself an able scrappy underdog, and once the voting started he proved he can be a very good come-from-behind winner too. But McCain has never seemed able to make sense of himself as the acknowledged leader of the pack. At campaign events and election-night rallies, his supporters always chant “Mac is back.” But McCain’s challenge now is not a comeback. He needs to solidify his strong position and broaden his base of support. That would seem to require a kind of politicking McCain is very evidently uncomfortable with, and that he has not been very good at in the past.
For most Republican politicians, building bridges to the base would mean meetings and press conferences with prominent social and fiscal conservatives, speeches articulating commonly held principles and policy goals, and in general wrapping themselves in the various banners of conservatism. McCain will certainly do some of this, and has already tried, but it is not his style, and is frankly unlikely to help him much.
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