"He's a good politician. He's doing all he can to make sure people know he would govern as a post-partisan moderate," said Matt Bennett, a policy analyst with Third Way, a Democratic centrist think tank.
While Obama is making a play for centrist voters, McCain's strategy seems more geared to pinning down his party's conservative base, as he has steadily tacked to the right on a range of issues.
He has abandoned or downplayed views on which his reputation as a maverick are based: his opposition to President Bush's tax cuts, his liberal approach to handling illegal immigrants and his opposition to offshore oil drilling.
McCain is bringing his campaign agenda in line with party orthodoxy because many conservatives still view him with suspicion due to past departures from core GOP positions. His burden is to mobilize a party that is fractured and seemingly unenthusiastic about its standard-bearer.
Eddie Mahe, a McCain supporter and former GOP official, said that McCain has to position himself for conservatives "in a way that provides them a motivation and incentive to vote."
Last week, McCain reversed course and announced that he supports offshore oil drilling. On tax policy, McCain has come to support an extension of Bush's tax cuts. What's more, he has proposed additional cuts in corporate tax rates and other business breaks.
He has backed away from supporting an immigration plan that conservatives loathed because it offered a path to citizenship for many illegal immigrants already in the country.
Despite those adjustments, many in McCain's party seem lukewarm about his candidacy. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll found recently that 45% of those who planned to vote for McCain said they would do so with enthusiasm. By contrast, 81% of Obama voters said they were enthusiastic.
But Mahe said the Arizona senator would pick up support among conservatives as they learn more about Obama's record. "The best shot they have to motivate the base," he said, "is to get people to see how liberal he is."
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janet.hook@latimes.com
