Will McCain Drag Reagan From the Grave at CPAC?

Jed Babbin analyzes the GOP Super Tuesday results and says he's hearing that John McCain may try to pull a stunt during his speech that could really backfire:

Tomorrow, both McCain and Romney will address the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, DC. (Huckabee will appear on Saturday morning). The speech McCain will give could be the best opportunity McCain will have to reach out to conservatives and bring them into the fold before the September 1-4 Minneapolis Republican convention.

One source told me last night that McCain is planning an all-out push at CPAC. At 3 pm tomorrow, McCain is scheduled to address the crowd expected to number over 6,000 activists. And McCain plans a very special introduction.

According to my source, McCain has prepared a video featuring President Ronald Reagan to make the introduction. If McCain uses this video, it is very likely to backfire badly. This is the group before which Ronald Reagan said in 1975 that, “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.”

Very few of the 2008 CPAC crowd will see McCain as the successor to Reagan and Reagan’s principles. McCain has sacrificed conservatives’ fundamental beliefs throughout his Senate career. If McCain uses this introduction, the boos will be very loud.

McCain faces a real quandary. If he fails at CPAC -- and doesn’t win the CPAC straw poll (he finished dead last in 2007) -- the word will be out that the conservatives are off his team this year. The results of the poll will be announced at about 2 pm Saturday.

I hope McCain drags Reagan from the grave to try to fool conservatives into believing that he's one of them. The TV images of thousands of conservatives booing him will make great footage for future Dem ads.

Charles Hurt of the NY Post predicts that McCain will soon make a left turn once the nomination is secure:

-- RUNNING as a conserva tive, John McCain rolled up huge victories last night in New York, New Jersey and beyond.

But if history is any guide, the McCain we've seen of late on the campaign trail is the most conservative McCain we'll ever see.

He has taken a commanding lead in the GOP primary by packaging himself as the "true conservative" committed to limited government, to slashed federal spending and to an avowedly conservative Supreme Court.

He claims the mantle of Ronald Reagan. He even claims the mantle of Barry Goldwater, conservatism's crack version of Reagan. But as McCain clinches the GOP nomination, he will begin his usual leftward lurch.

He will return to his lifelong positions as soft on illegal immigration, skeptical of tax cuts and favoring strong federal control over things like campaign financing.

And don't expect the media to continue their fawning coverage of McCain once he's the nominee. They'll turn on him like a Rottweiler on a wiener dog.

Well, there's something to look forward to.

UPDATE: Word from the Little Admiral is that he won't be misusing Reagan during his CPAC speech.