By Kevin Zwick
Staff Writer

Senator John McCain [R-Arizona] is the frontrunner on the road to becoming the Republican candidate for president. So why do conservatives despise him?

Throughout this campaign season, McCain was labeled as the “moderate” candidate and had to defend his ideals against conservatives such as Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. When Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race after spending millions of his personal money on his campaign, the conservatives were left with the moderate McCain and the former Baptist Minister Mike Huckabee. McCain’s lead in the delegate count is so large that it is numerically impossible for Mike Huckabee to defeat John McCain in the nomination race. That basically means John McCain is the unofficial Republican presidential candidate and the conservatives that do not like him are stuck with him.

John McCain’s problem is that conservatives feel that he will be unable to unify the Republican Party. Since his team-up with Senator Ted Kennedy [D-Massachusetts] on immigration reform, which was seen by many as a liberal idea, conservatives have been doubtful of McCain’s ability to be seen as a “conservative-enough” candidate. Even with endorsements made by Mitt Romney and Former President George H.W. Bush, he still fights to gain conservative support.

McCain’s strength in the primaries has not been the conservative base but the large numbers of independent voters that have come out in droves throw their support behind Senator McCain. His work on policies like the immigration reform has made him acceptable among independents that might be economically conservative but socially liberal. McCain is also projected to pick up the votes of conservative Democrats in the general election because of his fiscally conservative ideals and the possibility of Senator Barack Obama [D-Illinois] being the Democratic nominee, who is a far-left liberal.

A real fear of the conservatives is the position John McCain has to realign the Republican Party. With the importance of the youth vote becoming more and more apparent in this campaign, the Republican Party needs to find a new way of appealing to this important demographic and McCain is in the best position to accomplish this task.