ONCE JOHN WINS, HE'LL MAKE A LEFT
February 6, 2008 -- RUNNING as a conserva tive, John McCain rolled up huge victories last night in New York, New Jersey and beyond.
But if history is any guide, the McCain we've seen of late on the campaign trail is the most conservative McCain we'll ever see.
He has taken a commanding lead in the GOP primary by packaging himself as the "true conservative" committed to limited government, to slashed federal spending and to an avowedly conservative Supreme Court.
He claims the mantle of Ronald Reagan. He even claims the mantle of Barry Goldwater, conservatism's crack version of Reagan. But as McCain clinches the GOP nomination, he will begin his usual leftward lurch.
He will return to his lifelong positions as soft on illegal immigration, skeptical of tax cuts and favoring strong federal control over things like campaign financing.
McCain's appeal to independents and even the left is what makes him such a powerhouse in the general election.
It is also precisely what has so many in the Republican base so wildly fearful of handing him the keys to the kingdom.
If the Republican Party expands "because we have a candidate who's going out trying to attract liberals by being like them, then the party's going to be around but you won't recognize it," thundered radio king Rush Limbaugh.
The Republican Party will "be over as it exists now," he warns.
To understand just how McCain has managed to limp to the front of the GOP field, look no further than the outcome of yesterday's West Virginia Republican Convention.
At the outset, victory was in the air for Mitt Romney, the flip-flopping former Massachusetts governor.
He is universally loathed by all the other GOP candidates, who banded together to give all their votes to Mike Huckabee - simply to deny Romney a win.
The depressing GOP field that has paved a path to victory for McCain also gave surprising wins last night to Huckabee in Georgia, Alabama and Tennessee, as well as in his home state of Arkansas.
Still, McCain has so radicalized key conservatives that some have vowed to turn themselves into suicide voters next November by pulling the lever for Hillary Rodham Clinton over him.
This last-minute blitz against McCain by Limbaugh and others, however, comes far too late.
But if those conservatives sit out the general election, they will help Democrats make history by electing either the first black president or the first female president next November.
churt@nypost.com
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I CAN NOT VOTE FOR McCAIN OR CLINTON OR OBAMA, I WILL SIT THIS ONE OUT...
