Demagogue

This past weekend, John McCain said what religious conservatives wanted to hear. According to the AP:

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, looking to improve his standing with the party's conservative voters, said Sunday the court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

"I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned,'' the Arizona senator told about 800 people in South Carolina, one of the early voting states.

... The landmark 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade gave women the right to choose an abortion to terminate a pregnancy. The Supreme Court has narrowly upheld the decision, with the presence of an increasing number of more conservative justices on the court raising the possibility that abortion rights would be limited.

... McCain is trying to build support among conservatives after a recent rebuke from Christian leader James Dobson, who said he wouldn't back McCain's presidential bid.

Most leading conservative politicians agree with what McCain said, but very few of them have been willing to be as honest and direct as McCain was on Sunday. In that respect, at least, I give him a little credit.

Sure, McCain knows this declaration will help him a lot in the GOP's 2008 presidential primaries, but he also has to recognize that it could come back to haunt him in a general election.