(4 of 5)
Years before, Udall had been McCain's first tutor, showing the freshman Congressman the power of bipartisanship and the importance of taking on unpopular causes. Udall fired McCain's interest in American Indian issues, for example, something Republicans rarely bother with. Because McCain's politics are always personal, he backed fetal-tissue research as a tribute to Mo. Yet last week McCain claimed that he never voted to allow research on tissue from aborted fetuses. His record does not support the claim--he voted to allow such research in 1992, 1993 and 1997. Asked about the discrepancy, McCain spokesman Howard Opinsky told TIME that "science has progressed beyond this question. We should explore options that are not abortion dependent." Does that mean McCain would vote differently today? "That would depend on the legislation," says Opinsky. That's not straight talk, and Bush surrogates are already going after McCain on it.
But Bush believes his bread and butter is the tax issue. The Texas Governor is running on a $483 billion tax-cut plan that would reduce marginal rates across the board. McCain's would be less than half that size; he would use the bulk of the surplus to save Social Security and Medicare. "I think it's conservative to pay down the debt and save Social Security and not put it all into tax cuts," he says. "I think it's conservative to want to get rid of the special interests. And I don't think that anybody can paint me as being anything but a proud conservative."
The tax issue is important because Bush and McCain aren't merely fighting for the Republican Party's nomination. They are fighting for the Republican Party's soul--clarifying what the G.O.P. stands for in 2000. Bush is playing by supply-side Republican rules that have been in retreat throughout the 1990s; McCain believes he is on to something new. During his 114 New Hampshire town meetings, he says, he noticed something: "No one stood up and said, 'We need a $700 billion tax cut.'" Even the Republican Congress seems to be getting the message. After seeing Clinton veto the G.O.P.'s whopping tax-cut bill last year (McCain argued against it but ended up voting for it), Congress is now talking about a far more modest cut--one that resembles McCain's more than Bush's. But Bush is undeterred. He thinks Republicans will vote for his tax cut even if they tell pollsters they don't care about it.
And McCain thinks Republicans will vote for him even if his policies are gooey and incomplete. His aides have been carefully tightening up the reporters' rules of engagement on the Straight Talk Express. When they press the Senator for policy details, McCain says the conversation has got too "Talmudic" (sometimes he says "talmudian") and changes the subject. So far, it hasn't mattered. McCain has managed to make himself the embodiment of reform, of truth and courage and all the rest of it, and as long as voters believe that Big Picture, none of his contradictions and inconsistencies will make much difference.