The Republican presumptive nominee knows how to not play nice...with other Republicans. But when it comes to his "friends across the aisle", he only seems to know how to play nice.
That is a problem but I think but part of that is media perception magnifying of conflict among conservations and Republicans. Part of McCain’s popularity has been his high profile criticism of his own and his opportunistic use of leftist rhetoric on occasion. That said McCain has been very hard on the left. What often happens is that we remember when we are in disagreement more than when we are in agreement. Marriages fall apart because of the phrases “You always...” “You never...”. Is McCain never a conservative because he has proposed some things that are not? The immigration reform bill which I did not support was supported by G.W. Bush and a slew of other conservatives many with unquestionable credentials. I don’t necessarily call them liberals for it, naive is a better word but then again conservatives have a tendency to be duped by the left.
Take for example the speech below where McCain skewers the Democrats:
“McCain — who received a hearty round of applause by declaring he would rather lose the presidential campaign than jeopardize the war effort in Iraq — also took a swipe at Democratic Sens. Barack Obama (Ill.) and Hillary Clinton (N.Y.), saying they were pushing for a hasty withdrawal: “Democrats have time and time again raised the flag of surrender. We’ve been able to beat that back.”
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/03/24/mccain_has_tough_words_for_dem.html
I think the McCain campaign would benefit by running ads in very red states highlighting his disagreements with the left. He really skewered Michael Moore at the 2004 convention.
The difference with McCain is that he does speak his mind whether it is in agreement or not. That may be a flaw but independence is something I can live with. It is what makes us different from the left, we are not afraid of people speaking their mind in ways that are contrary to what we believe. We may disagree and work politically for our enemies dissolution but where we excel is when our arguments are laid out in the public square. We stopped the naive immigration reform bill. The question is whether we want someone who we can stop politically in the event they stray like with McCain or if we want someone like Obama who will push the most far left policies no matter what we say.