McCain starts the groveling

With Mitt Romney now officially "suspending" his campaign ( I believe you get matching funds if you suspend instead of quit), John McCain will start the inevitable wooing of that ever so vocal conservative wing of the Republican Party, (CNN article) and apparently Romney himself. (CNN article )

After snubbing CPAC last year, McCain was almost obligated to speak before the conservative political action committee in an attempt to try and blunt any more damage by the remaining GOP contender, Mick Huckabee. (I really have a problem listing Ron Paul as a contender). McCain went before the CPAC this year to as he said "make my case". This was political speak, meaning that he was really going to need the conservative wing of the GOP party if he is to have any chance to win the general election in November.

As a bone to throw to the pack of conservatives, he has modified his "immigration" position to now include sealing the boarders as a prerequisite to any other methods of dealing with the huge immigration problem. The problem for McCain is what has gotten him this far in the GOP presidential race, is his more moderate positions on issues, and he will need to lean significantly to the right in order to sway the majority of conservatives in his party. A move that takes him away from the ideas and positions that got him to the front.

There is almost no possible way for Mike Huckabee to wrest the GOP nomination from McCain now, and almost no possible way for McCain to sway the majority of conservatives to his cause without alienating a portion of the people that voted for him so far in the primaries. A serious position between a rock and a hard place comes to mind when describing McCain’s dilemma.

The main questions now for the GOP are: Can the vocal conservative wing unite behind the "maverick" McCain? and, Can McCain stay moderate enough to win a general election? Both questions should be fun to watch get answered.

The idea of listening to Rush Limbaugh saying anything nice about McCain would be almost worth listening to his show :) Of course I'm not sure how the current GOP political "reporters" feel about Bush already coming out and calling for a rally around "keep a conservative in the White House" when he spoke to CPAC