Fred Barnes and Steven Hayes are among the luminaries scheduled to appear at CPAC later this week — along with George Bush, Dick Cheney, Mitt Romney, John McCain, and some other interesting and bright people. I’ll be blogging the meeting, as will Matt Continetti of the Campaign Standard. The meeting is likely to give a strong indication of where the Republican race goes from here — whether or not anyone seizes control of the race in today’s primary contests. CPAC presents Senator McCain with an important opportunity to reach out to many social and fiscal conservatives whom he’s snubbed or criticized in the past. If today’s contests cement his frontrunner status, I suspect that many who participate will be satisfied if no one walks away with any new wounds that will fester between now and election day. Rush Limbaugh probably speaks for many conservatives who wonder whether they should trust McCain even if he says the right things on immigration, judges, taxes, and other knotty issues. CPAC might tell us whether we can all just get along. I encourage the Senator to give a focus on the area that seems to me to need the most work: his views on taxes and the economy. His ambivalence about President Bush’s tax cuts is well-documented, as is his disdain for some of America’s largest and most successful companies. The Republican party will have a hard time uniting behind someone who sounds like John Edwards warmed over. That’s why it’s fortunate that Senator McCain is defending the tax reductions that were enacted under President Bush’s watch, but which are opposed by both Senators Clinton and Obama. Let’s hear a full-throated defense of why low taxes and limited regulation are fair, and why they are necessary to ensure continued economic growth. This principle — which unites all Republicans — gives Senator McCain the chance to draw a bright contrast with the eventual Democratic nominee, and give conservatives reason to believe that McCain is really ‘one of us.’
