Can McCain make peace with conservatives?

NRO had a symposium of conservative writers writing about how McCain might make his peace with the conservative base of the Republican Party. There are some good suggestions here. Victor Davis Hanson has a five-step plan of how to reassure conservatives mostly by making gestures of respect and conciliation while naming the people he would appoint to cabinet positions.

Though I disagree with Hanson's and Ed Whelan's suggestions of Thompson as a good choice for McCain's vice-presidential nominee. McCain doesn't need to pick someone who seems older than he is.

For example, along with many conservatives I was disturbed to hear the reports that McCain had said he would nominate conservatives like Roberts but not Alito because Alito wore his conservatism on his sleeve - a totally false accusation about Alito's temperament. McCain has denied that story, but Robert Novak had a pretty convincing column that indicated the truth of the rumor. But now that Ted Olson and Steven Calabresi and and Charles Fried have endorsed McCain and if he embraces their support and indicates that they would have a hand in picking his judicial nominees, I have a bit more confidence in his picks though he still makes me nervous on that front.

However, in the end, judicial nominations would be one reason why I would support McCain over either Obama or Clinton. Chances are that the next president would get the opportunity to make one or more Supreme Court nominations. And even if McCain made an appointment as stomach-churning to conservatives as Anthony Kennedy (made by the president all conservatives genuflect to) that would still be better than the nominations a President Obama or Clinton would make. A president who serves two terms usually gets the opportunity to appoint about 1/3 of all federal judges. George W. Bush has done so. Can conservatives who detest McCain over immigration, global warming, tax cuts, McCain-Feingold really want to give that power to the Democrats?

Sure, he's not ideal and will give us heartburn. But our choice isn't between McCain and the ideal conservative. It's between McCain and avowedly liberal candidates.

Alas.