The conservative movement, which is not to be confused with conservatives, is the big loser in the 2008 Republican contest for the presidential nomination. Conservatives did not field a credible alternative to John McCain. Instead, they coalesced behind a candidate as flawed, from a conservative perspective, as McCain. Their indignation at McCain's divergences from conservatism came across as phony. Mitt Romney, as governor of Massachusetts, enacted a Hillaryesque health-care program, cut not a single tax, presided over the codification of gay marriage, supported abortion so much as to give them out at taxpayer expense, and opposed the Second Amendment. There's a lot to criticize in McCain, but when the criticism comes from people willing to overlook all that it does not come across as genuine. The feigned purity was enough to make you cheer for McCain.

Romney may have been moving in the right direction with the reinvention of himself as a Reagan conservative, and McCain may have been moving in the wrong direction with his penchant for embracing media-driven causes (while he still plays the maverick), but McCain's record in public office, and rhetoric in past campaigns, is far more conservative than Romney's. Would a Romney presidency have been better than a McCain presidency? I doubt it. Though each has strengths and weaknesses, the pair seems, at least from a conservative's perspective, a wash.

John McCain has problems with the Republican wing of the Republican Party. His past support for open borders, state intrusions to fight off the global-warming phantom menace, and limits on political speech have enraged conservative voters who somehow forgave these faults in George W. Bush. Ann Coulter says that she'd vote for Hillary Clinton over McCain. Rush Limbaugh says the Republican Party will be "over" in its present form should McCain win. Part of the audience at CPAC booed the Arizona senator.

Party conservatives, the people who worship in the church of Republican, are responsible for a moderate as Republican nominee. Their failure to even scold the current president when he embarked on a spending spree, nationalized airport security, created a new federal department, or any number of other liberal initiatives sent the message that you could walk all over their principles as long as you kept them close to power. They enabled President Bush's big-government "conservatism" by playing lapdog instead of watchdog.

Republican politicans observed the last seven years. They know they can get away with governing like liberals. They know party conservatives, the people who used to be known as "movement conservatives," like being flattered, like feeling close to power. As far as cutting government, that's tertiary.

McCain's biggest sin to movement conservatives, it seems, is not kissing their ring. Now it's the turn of party conservatives to abase themselves and kiss his. Here comes the groveling. It's coming, no matter what party conservatives say now. It's coming because power matters more than principle to such people. George W. Bush prepared party conservatives at CPAC by encouraging them to rally round the presumptive nominee. "[O]ver the past seven years, you've been with me," George W. Bush told the fawning audience. "I appreciate your support." The crowd responded with chants of "four more years." Four more years, precisely, as John McCain and George Bush share such anti-conservative positions as speech limits through campaign finance reform, rewarding law breaking through amnesty for illegal aliens, and continuing the nation-building venture in Iraq. But Bush, strangely, gets a pass while McCain is compared unfavorably to Hillary Clinton. I don't get it.

Bush calls McCain a "true conservative." This tells us something about both men.

When real conservatives have objected to the liberal direction George W. Bush took the GOP, party conservatives demanded resignations and fired them. When party conservatives took money to promote Bush administration policies they had previously opposed, the repercussions, at least within the movement, were non-existent. Bush dropped the right names ("Jesus," "Reagan"), had the right enemies (The New York Times, ABCCBSNBC), and made a few genuflections to conservative policy (tax cuts, judges). What he did best of all was assure party conservatives that he was one of them, that they had something invested in the success of his presidency. John McCain doesn't do this and conservatives hate him for it. His success proves the lie of conservative movement success. They're not as powerful as they like to think.

In a drive for power conservatives abandoned their principles over the last seven years. Now they are left with neither.

its over, obamie boy will win, lib scum gonna have congress and exec. lights out! all i can say is i have a death grip on my guns.

Don't blame me, I voted for Ron Paul.

"McCain's biggest sin to movement conservatives, it seems, is not kissing their ring".

You're paritally right about that. Because McCain was too busy kissing the a$$es of leftist Democrat legislators to be kissing the ring of movement conservatives.

I think the most important factor in all of this is that so-called conservatives just really, really love war. They wallow in nationalism.

There is only one good thing about a prospecitve McNasty Presidency. Only one. And that's that he's a scary cranky old fk'er who will make those who threaten us think twice about screwing with the U.S..

Pat Buchanan is a brilliant man. But we don't want brilliance do we?! Because brilliance comes with straight talk and the projection of reality. Two things that modern day Americans don't seem too interested in because then we'd need to get serious.

What time is Idol on??

When John McCain brought up his support for illegal immigration at the CPAC convention he was booed, it seemed, by everyone in attendance. Instead of grinning about it, he should have said, "Let he who has not voted for George Bush, shout the first boo."

The conservative distaste for Senator McCain has nothing to do with his positions on the issues, but instead has to do with his seeming lack or partianship.

Isn't partisanship what it's all about? Differences in political philosophy is the only thing that distinguishes the two party system and that is why McCain is, essentially, the grumpy old Democrat in this race.

Republicans don't mind compromise and it’s certainly part of the process. But we're not looking for a Kumbaya moment either. Problem is that McCain doesn't just put his hand out across the aisle to work with Democrats; he jumps in their laps.

Don't see that kind of "compromise" going the other way, do we?

Whether it's Democrats like Reid or Pelosi or Fat Ted extending their middle fingers and saying F you to Republicans, I see way more partisanship on the left than on the right.

So of course the media and the opposition are going to love McCain. As long as he doesn’t get elected President.