Most political experts and analysts agree that John McCain has a problem.  (Besides former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee staying in an already lost race.)  The conservative base of the Republican Party sees the Arizona senator as just shy of moderate and – on some key issues, like immigration reform – far too liberal for their liking.  Many conservative leaders, like the Reverend James Dobson, have publicly said that they will simply not vote for John McCain.

So John McCain has a problem.

Enter President George H. W. Bush, the 41^st president of the United States.   On Monday, February 18, the former president endorsed Senator McCain in Houston, Texas, stating that John McCain was the person best prepared to lead the United States in “these trying times.”   Although his son, the current president, has not yet endorsed the Arizona senator, the patriarch of the Bush clan joins his other son, Jeb Bush, in endorsing John McCain.

And this should go far in eliminating John McCain’s problem with the conservative base.

It should.

But it may not. 

The Republicans want and need unity going into the general election.  Having the Bush family supporting McCain is a definite plus and might sway many of the old Reagan Republicans.  However, the Republican Party is in search of a winner.  But not just a winner – a winner who reflects the core values of the party’s ideology.

Which most conservatives do not believe John McCain reflects.   And perhaps one of the reasons why President George W. Bush has not endorsed Senator McCain thus far.  Being an unpopular president that seems to have strayed from the true conservative path (President Bush also supported the proposed Comprehensive Immigration Reform Bill, an extremely unpopular measure, especially among conservative Republicans), the president’s endorsement will only be so much “window dressing” for McCain.  As far as aiding in reaching out to the conservative base, an endorsement before John McCain clinches the required number to secure the Republican nomination might remind voters how much McCain’s policies coincide with Bush’s.  An endorsement after securing more than enough delegates will not only be expected but undamaging. 

It is not difficult to imagine that the Republican Party had a hand in directing former President Bush’s endorsement, its timing, and its message of unity.  It is not difficult because it is not imagined.