Kristol thinks McCain’s conservative problem is overblown:

“On the Republican side: About a third of the voters called themselves ‘somewhat conservative.’ McCain did as well with those ‘somewhat conservative’ voters as he did with the Republican primary electorate as a whole. Among the quarter or so of the voters who called themselves ‘very conservative,’ McCain lost to Romney by about 2 to 1, getting only 20 percent of those voters. This suggests to me that McCain’s ‘conservative problem’ is not as dire among conservative voters as you would think listening to conservative elites. And in fact, among the very conservative Republican voters, it’s quite possible that they prefer Romney or even Huckabee to McCain, but the fact that they prefer Romney or in some cases Huckabee to McCain doesn’t mean that they view McCain as unacceptable.

And the social conservative Christians see a silver lining in a McCain nomination (though they do admit there is a dark cloud):

I’ll admit that I’m troubled by the idea of a McCain presidency. He still seems to me to be a cross between Conan and Charles Foster Kane: A fascinatingly flawed and haunted man whose main goal in life is to crush his enemies and see them driven before him.
Still, as John Mark Reynolds notes, “The good news is that unlike any Democrat running McCain is pro-life, pro-traditional marriage, against torture, and for winning the War on Terror.” True enough. Also, having McCain as the nominee really ticks off all the people that unfairly trashed Huckabee (Rush, Mark Levin, et. al.). It may not be enough to ease my discomfort over McCain, but it nevertheless brings me great pleasure.

But McCain hasn’t been able to get a majority of Republican voters to vote for him. Even in his two big “wins” it was less than 40%. And just because conservatives voted for Huckabee or Romney doesn’t mean that they can’t be anyone but McCain voters (my vote for Romney is an anyone-but-McCain vote).
So, will conservatives vote for him? My husband has been threatening to vote for Obama (until I told him about Obama’s abortion position), commenters here have been threatening to leave the party over it, callers to Hewitt have been threatening to sit this one out, and Michelle Malkin has emails from readers who refuse to vote for McCain, though she has a poll up for registered MichelleMalkin.com users and as of now the results are mixed.
I don’t know about you but I’m getting a 2006 vibe where the conservative base decided not bother voting for Republicans just because they called themselves Republicans.
BTW, if you missed Rush busting on McCain yesterday, go here and listen to what happens when a listener tells Rush to be quiet about McCain. I can’t understand why conservatives would have a problem with him, do you? 🙂