That is precisely the right message for South Carolina, probably the state most contemptuous of Clinton. For weeks some Bush advisers pre-emptively rationalized a New Hampshire defeat as a kind of ratification by inhospitable Yankees. That is, defeat would confirm their success in presenting Bush as a religiously devout, tax-cutting Southern conservative. And Tuesday night the explanation of defeat was that McCain had succeeded in adversely defining Bush's tax cut, but Bush will do better in South Carolina. Yet even if Bush had received all the votes that went to Steve Forbes, the candidate who most stresses tax cutting, McCain would still have won easily.
Conservatism is about responding prudently to scarcities, of resources and virtue.
Today conservatives think the crucial scarcity is not disposable income, but the principles of political leaders. If Bush is going to win the 16-day fight for the right to define conservatism, he must distinguish his principles from McCain's. In 1912 McCain's hero, Teddy Roosevelt, ran a third party campaign, guaranteeing the defeat of the conservative incumbent Republican president, William Howard Taft. But since 1964 conservatives have been the Republican establishment. Yes, McCain, like Reagan, attracts Democrats.