McCain faces delicate balance of being GOP nominee, political maverick

By LARRY EICHEL Philadelphia Inquirer
June 22, 2008

PHILADELPHIA — - It's not easy trying to be a major-party presidential nominee and a political maverick at the same time, or so John McCain is finding out.His prospects for defeating Democrat Barack Obama in November rely in large part on how well he handles the two roles and the inevitable tensions between them.As the presumptive Republican nominee, McCain needs to hold onto the party's base voters, most of whom admire President Bush. As maverick, he must reach out to independents and Democrats, many of whom consider the incumbent a failure.The events of the past week show the difficulty involved in performing both parts.
On Tuesday, he unveiled a new ad that portrayed himself as maverick: "John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming ... five years ago."Before the day was over, though, he declared his support for lifting the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. This new position, which was more in keeping with his party's mainstream, was embraced within hours by George W. Bush.Said Frank Luntz, a pollster with Republican roots: "McCain's independence is the only hope he has of winning the presidency, and it helps whenever he can draw contrasts with the president." The Arizona senator prevailed in the primaries largely because his party's voters decided that his reputation for independence made him their best option — against a political landscape colored by a sagging economy, an unpopular war and a more unpopular president.Analysts say that the strength of McCain's persona is the reason he's within range of Obama, trailing in most polls by 4 or 5 percentage points.But if McCain is too much the maverick or opens too much distance between himself and the president, he risks alienating Republican loyalists.Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who supports McCain after initially opposing him, wrote earlier this year that conservatives have reason to "worry about where McCain's passions lie."Said Stephen Hess, who has advised three Republican administrations: "McCain has been a maverick; they can't take that away from him. But going forward, he's at the head of a long army, and the army's called the GOP."