McCain Won't Court Limbaugh

So much has been said about some of talk radio's nationally syndicated heaviest hitters and their rejection of John McCain.

Supposedly, McCain's Super Tuesday success was talk radio's defeat.

Is this feud a clash of egos or a battle among principled individuals?

McCain tunes out Limbaugh

While the presumptive GOP nominee knows he needs to reconcile with conservatives, he has no illusions when it comes to the radio host.

nomination almost within reach. He knows the need to reconcile with those conservatives who have so long sought to deny him the party's prize. But even such an obviously sensible strategy has its limits.

Chatting with reporters as his campaign plane flew from St. Louis to Chicago, McCain was asked about radio host Rush Limbaugh's frequent jabs at him. The Times' Maeve Reston was among those listening, and she reports that McCain suffers no illusions on this front.

"We'd like to have everybody on board," he replied. "We'd like to have a totally united party, but I also realize there are some people that just may not be able to support me at the end of the day."

He then acknowledged, with a typical one-liner, that he is not part of Limbaugh's audience: "There's a certain trace of masochism in my family, but not that deep."

McCain is joking around, but I think he's really ticked off about the drubbing he's been taking on much of talk radio.

McCain is in an uncomfortable position.

He has to know how important it is to unify the party for him to have any chance of winning.

But McCain is stubborn. Rather than reaching out to conservatives with misgivings about him, he's basically saying he has no interest in them. (I think the hot-tempered McCain could convey his message to Limbaugh and his other critics with two choice words.)

He probably assumes that he can afford to ignore the talk radio demographic because he has that one golden thing going for him -- McCain isn't Hillary.

That strategy is somewhat dangerous.

The results of yesterday's primaries and caucuses should serve to warn McCain that his opponent might be Obama.

In a race against Obama, and without the anti-Hillary vote to assist him, McCain will have a much harder time.

McCain doesn't want to admit it, but he needs talk radio on his side to succeed in November.