McCain's biggest enemy: Fellow Republicans

Because of who our nominee is, it doesn't matter who's elected President." — Rush Limbaugh, February 8.

With Romney out of the race, McCain has a clear path to the nomination. But now he faces the difficult task of reuniting his own party. The Republicans have splintered in a big way; McCain didn't carry a single Southern state on Super Tuesday, and there's a good argument that he won because Romney and Huckabee split the conservative vote.

The depth of conservatives' hatred for McCain is perhaps best demonstrated by quoting Rush Limbaugh's complaints the day after Super Tuesday:

"McCain gets credit for being a maverick, as if that's evidence of his great character, because he'll always follow his conscience rather than the party line, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, but he's always a maverick in furtherance of principles that we find abhorrent and principles that liberals love. ... While he's out there obstructing conservatism, thumbing his nose at us, he's being lauded and praised. Big maverick, gets credit for that. Then Republicans get blamed for nothing getting done."

It's difficult to see how McCain can mend this rift. Many conservatives will vote for him anyway, of course; but some will likely just stay home. As the Democrats showed in 2004, it's difficult to win an election with a candidate your base isn't excited about.

This isn't to say the Democratic nominee will necessarily have an easy time of it. We shouldn't get overconfident; the press still loves McCain and will give him favorable coverage. We can take heart, however, in knowing that McCain has a tough uphill slog just to win the support of his own party.