Can McCain, GOP Candidates Reconcile With “The Boys?”

WILL “HERITAGE” SUPPORTERS FORGIVE ARIZONA SENATOR?

FITSNews – April 27, 2007 - “The boys don’t forget,” a friend of ours told us several months ago.

Who are “the boys,” you may ask?

Well, they’re supporters of the Confederate flag, among other things. Good Ole’ Boys. White boys. Budweiser-drinkin’ boys. Overwhelmingly Republican boys. And they just happen to reside in South Carolina in larger numbers than perhaps any other state in the nation. And what is it that “the boys” don’t forget? Well, in the case of the 2008 GOP Presidential Primary, it’s a perceived slap in the face by Straight Talker John McCain that occurred back in 2000 when he returned to South Carolina after losing its primary to George W. Bush and admitted he erred in not advocating the removal of the “Stars and Bars” from the State House dome.

Turns out our friend was right. Because seven years later, McCain’s mea culpa on the flag is as fresh on “the boys” minds as it was the day it happened.

“We’re here to let him know we don’t forget insults,” said Don Gordon, one of several flag supporters who protested McCain’s presidential kickoff in Columbia yesterday. “He came back here after he lost just to insult South Carolina and its heritage.”

Gordon, a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, said he did not speak for other pro-flag groups but added, “they all feel pretty much the same.”

“To be honest, I hate he did it because otherwise I’d probably be supporting him today,” Gordon said. “And while we can’t dictate who gets into office, if it gets close we can bump somebody over the edge.”

Flag supporters – and detractors – are clearly on the radar of the major presidential candidates. Democrats are scoring votes by publicly condemning the flag, which was removed from the State House dome and placed behind a Confederate Memorial on the State House grounds in 2000. Republicans, on the other hand, are tiptoeing around the issue and doing their best not to lose votes by alienating “the boys.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, for example, recently said he felt the voters of Alabama should decide how best to display the Confederate flag in that state, a clear nod to “the boys” that he is sympathetic to their views as a presidential candidate despite what some consider to be previous statements to the contrary.

Giuliani is not alone. In a speech to GOP activists in Charleston, S.C. last August, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney also jokingly courted “the boys” by referring to the Civil War as “The War of Northern Aggression,” a frequently used description for the conflict in “heritage” circles.

We talked to senior McCain advisor John Weaver Thursday and asked him whether he felt his candidate had a chance to win back Confederate flag supporters.

“That issue has been settled to the satisfaction of the vast majority of South Carolinians,” Weaver told FITSNews. “John is going to run on his record and hopefully we’ll attract people of all stripes.”

Will that be enough for “the boys?” Only time will tell … for McCain and the rest of the Republican field.

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