False Sense of Maturity

John McCain, in an effort to win more votes, looks to have sold his soul to the Christian right:

Sen. John McCain, who has struggled to win the trust of evangelical voters, met privately Thursday in Ohio with several influential social conservatives who have been critical of him — and impressed them, while telling them only some of what they wanted to hear.

McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, told the small assembly that he was open to learning more about their opposition to embryonic stem cell research despite his past disagreements with them on the issue.

And, according to participants, he indicated that he would take seriously their requests that he choose an anti-abortion running mate and would talk more openly about his opposition to gay marriage — a pledge he carried out later in the day by endorsing a ballot measure in California to ban gay marriage.”

It was obvious there were a lot of changed hearts in the room,” said Phil Burress, who led Ohio’s anti-gay-marriage ballot measure in 2004. “We realized that he’s with us on the majority of the issues we care about.”

This pandering seems unlikely to win him the presidency. McCain’s whole appeal is that he is supposedly a moderate, or a maverick politician. Here, he seems to be openly intimidated by the Christer base of his party. The Senator even seems to be considering fulfilling their fantasy of opposing stem cell research, which would be political suicide. Not only is stem cell research well supported, but if he changed his mind on the issue, he would forever be termed a “flip-flopper” who is afraid to speak his own mind.