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McCain Campaign Looks Ahead to General Election

The Post's Mike Shear reports from Houston on former Secretary of State James Baker's endorsement of Sen. John McCain and how the Republican contender's campaign is beginning to focus on a possible national match up with Sen. Barack Obama.

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The alternative narrative is this: Conservatives stayed home in 1992, upset at Bush the elder for breaking his no-new-taxes pledge. Conservatives didn't rally behind Bob Dole in 1996, and look what happened to him. Some conservatives believe you have to die first before resurrection.

Saul Anuzis, the Michigan Republican Party chairman, doesn't believe in self-inflicted pain. "In the end, for conservatives, this is going to be a very simple choice. I think you will see a coalescence of the party behind McCain."

The McCain campaign hired the conservative consulting firm Shirley & Bannister to help. Craig Shirley, who is working on his second Reagan campaign biography and has strong ties to Reaganites, said his firm has been trying to open doors and close ranks. "At the end of the day, we're all going to be on the same team," Shirley said.

There has been considerable tension between the McCain camp and prominent talk-radio hosts, such as Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. And McCain may not have helped himself any in that world by quickly distancing himself from fiery conservative radio personality Bill Cunningham, who was the warm-up act at a McCain rally on Tuesday in Cincinnati. Cunningham's mocking of Obama drew a public rebuke of Cunningham and an apology from McCain. To which Cunningham fired back: He was now through with McCain, and would vote for Hillary Clinton.

"How does he repudiate me without knowing what he's repudiating?" Cunningham said later on his talk show.

McCain strategist Black acknowledged that there are still some problems with conservative talk-radio hosts and certain conservative leaders, but he noted that more and more are joining the McCain team each week. He specifically singled out former Cabinet secretary Jack Kemp, businessman (and onetime presidential candidate) Steve Forbes and former solicitor general Ted Olson.

"It's not unanimous yet, but we're working on it," said Black, who said private meetings with key figures are ongoing.

Forbes, who initially backed Rudolph Giuliani for president, had been skeptical of McCain, in part because of the senator's vote against the 2003 tax cuts. But after Giuliani dropped out, he began watching McCain more closely in debates and consulted with his economic advisers. "I feel comfortable now," Forbes said.

McCain has been reaching out to fiscal conservatives, Forbes said, by explaining that he understands that tax cuts can be an effective engine for the economy if done properly. His opposition in 2003, McCain has explained, was because Republicans had failed to restrain spending. In addition, Forbes noted McCain's crusade against pork-barrel spending and his proposals to get rid of the alternative minimum tax and to provide more incentives for business research and development.

"Economic conservatives are starting to warm up to him," Forbes asserted.

Those who are optimistic that McCain will ultimately pull the lion's share of conservatives his way often cite his comments about appointing judges in the mold of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and Chief Justice John Roberts.

They key, though, almost every conservative says -- "the home run," as David Keene put it -- is McCain's vice presidential choice. The nominee must be an unapologetic conservative, in the eyes of true believers.

"I think his veep candidate should be, has to be and probably will be either Jim DeMint [the South Carolina senator] or Mark Sanford [the South Carolina governor], and Mark's my guy," said conservative Republican J. Kenneth Blackwell, the former Ohio secretary of state.

Whoever it is, the sooner the better for Chris "Karl" Pohl, so he can get his hat business cranked up. "The ladies love them. They're sexy."

A Soviet history buff who lives in Southern California, Pohl is not so much upset with McCain as he is unmotivated by him. Like other conservatives, he's waiting to see something, hear something that gets him fired up.

"That's up to John McCain, I think, to convince us we won't have any more betrayals."

Polling analyst Jennifer Agiesta also contributed to this report.