John McCain, in any other business, would be rewarded for bringing new customers into the store.
George W. Bush’s complaint about Michigan, however, is that the voters who beat him in the Republican primary yesterday were party crashers, Independents and Democrats who didn’t belong there in the first place.
The advantage for Bush in the next key bouts in New York and California is that only Republicans can vote; and even in Michigan Bush was getting a majority of the party core. The challenge for McCain is to stir up more Republican rebels and, at the same time, pacify the party chieftains with promises they could be friends, someday.
That’s why McCain last night was saying: “I am a proud Reagan conservative. I love the Republican party. It is my home.”
What’s to do with a nosy rebel who’s come home with a lot of unfamiliar friends. The Republicans’ stubborn dillemma is on this hour.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
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