Immigration: McCain's Achilles Heel

The media has crowned Sen. John McCain the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, but the rumbles from the conservative GOP seems to giving off a different message. They don't like his vote against Bush's tax cut, so much so that McCain has taken to promising to make it permanent. (It's meant to expire in 2010.) Throwing in a little "cutting of government" doesn't seem to help much. The sticking point with the conservatives, if we are to judge from attitudes in his home state (See Washington Post article.), seems to be his attitude on immigration. For a Republican, it's been countercultural for the right -- consorting with Ted Kennedy and no better than Hillary's position. Super Tuesday may staunch this bottom-up rebellion and cement the nomination for McCain. And it may not.