Maverick no more: but will conservatives embrace John McCain?

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Columbia, S.C.

BOB ROYALL is as establishment as you get in South Carolina. Born and raised here, a graduate of the University of South Carolina, the retired chairman of the National Bank of South Carolina, and a former state secretary of commerce, Royall is known and respected by pretty much everybody. In 2000, when the time came to support a Republican presidential candidate, Royall chose George W. Bush, becoming W's state finance chairman and helping him beat back the challenge from Sen. John McCain. This time around, as the primary approached, Royall chose to head the finance committee of another contender: McCain.

Why Bush then and McCain now? "It's eight years later, and we've got a different ball game," Royall tells me a couple of days after McCain's South Carolina victory. "My concentration first and foremost is on the security of this country, and I really feel that McCain is by far the strongest leader in that regard." Back in 2000, Royall explains, he felt Bush the businessman--and political legacy--was the better choice. "I was more concerned with economic matters back then, and the fact that I had known [Bush's] father quite well," Royall says.

The course Royall followed from Bush to McCain says a lot about why McCain won here, and it might--might--indicate that McCain, for all the things he has done over the years to irritate his own party, could become an acceptable candidate to true-blue Republicans.

Everybody knows McCain has alienated conservatives on a number of big issues. Illegal immigration, tax cuts, campaign-finance reform--he has split with the party on all three, and all have hurt him in this campaign. At every stop, he has to mend fences not only with establishment figures, the leaders who can offer endorsements and fundraising clout, but with members of the party base, many of whom think he would rather win favor from the New York Times than from conservatives.

All of that has made McCain anathema to some of the most powerful voices in conservatism today. Rush Limbaugh, for example, has used his program to hit McCain on a pretty regular basis. A few days before the voting in South Carolina began, he said of McCain and Mike Huckabee, "I'm here to tell you, if either of these two guys get the nomination, it's going to destroy the Republican party, it's going to change it forever, be the end of it. Alot of people aren't going to vote. You watch." Those are not idle words, coming from a man who reaches millions of Republicans every day.