Nailin' down the base

The Republicans I talk to are resigned to having to hold their nose and vote for John McCain for President, but that's a long way from the kind of genuine enthusiasm he's going to need in his base corps of supporters to win.

McCain is largely the beneficiary of a shattered field, with Romney and Huckabee splitting the conservative vote, and Giuliani doing such a poor job of campaigning that McCain was able to hold the center-left well enough to win a plurality of the votes in key primaries. After a performance like this, he needs to consolidate the party behind him, and thus far, has shown little progress or interest in doing so.

The best bets are conservative votes on a few hot-button social issues on the Senate floor, which Democrats will probably not even allow to come to a vote, or naming a bonafide conservative candidate for vice president on his ticket.

McCain is showing no signs of doing anything soon on either front, spending time in Europe to build foreign policy credentials that he already has, and going to big dollar fundraising events around the U.S. This is a necessity, but McCain gains little or nothing from the foreign travels that a lesser-experienced candidate might benefit from.

We can only hope McCain, and particularly his handlers on the campaign team, shape up the base, before it's too late. Actual enthusiasim is a lot better than resignation in building a functioning campaign organization from your party.