Now that Mitt Romney has decided to put his campaign in neutral, John McCain is clearly in the driver’s seat for the GOP nomination for president. Mike Huckabee insists that he is still in it, but will be nothing more than a footnote in a handful of Bible Belt states.

And the way conservative media pundits portray it, George McGovern’s ideological twin is going to be crowned in Minneapolis this summer. Firebrand columnist Ann Coulter said that she would rather vote for Hillary Clinton than McCain, while Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh have given equally cool receptions to the Arizona senator. They all seem to be of the mind that McCain is a liberal, no different from Clinton or Barack Obama, so why not vote for the real thing?

In the Stupid Manual, that chapter reads: “Grab knife. Slice off nose. Laugh at nose-less face.”

It is true that, for conservatives, there is much to dislike about McCain. One of his signature pieces of legislation – McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform – is an abomination. Far from removing the taint of money from politics, it has simply shifted it around. 527’s have sprouted like weeds, making these “advocacy groups” the political equivalent of an offshore account in the Caymans. (Another nasty side effect of McCain-Feingold is the creeping specter of a republican oligarchy, where only the independently wealthy, like Mike Bloomberg or Mitt Romney, will have the ability to run for higher office.)

McCain also gets dinged for his populist rhetoric on taxes and amnesty approach for dealing with illegal immigration. But conservatives need to keep some perspective. When it comes to the war on terror, nominating judges, and reigning in federal spending, he is clearly the best choice remaining in the field.

McCain has shown a near bloodthirsty desire to keep the heat on Islamic jihadists, promising to follow Osama bin Laden to the gates of hell if necessary. And as a former naval aviator who spent over five years getting smacked around by his Vietnamese captors - four of those years voluntarily - McCain would have rock-solid street cred as commander-in-chief; a quality not to be dismissed in a time of war. Regardless of what one thought about the situation in Iraq a year ago, there are clear signs that the new policy is working and McCain supported the surge from Jump Street.

Judicial appointments are another key issue in this election. Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is entering his Methuselah years and may have been waiting to get that gold watch engraved until George W. Bush leaves office. The next president will likely get to replace Stevens and possibly one other justice (Ruth Bader Ginsburg is only slightly more spry than Stevens). While it is quite possible that McCain would tap a Souter clone as quickly as he would a Scalia, conservatives need to ask themselves one question: if a seat does open up, do you want Hillary Clinton, with Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi whispering in her ear, making that call?

And if one of Dubya’s sins among conservatives was his habit of spending federal dollars like a sailor on shore leave, McCain will be a breath of fresh air. His aversion to pork barrel projects in renowned, so we should expect that he will wield a more nimble veto pen than does Bush.

For his part, McCain would be making a fatal error to assume that simply being the anti-Hillary candidate will rally conservatives to his cause. Plus, Clinton is still in a horserace with Obama: conservatives might stay home in November if Obama pulls off an upset in the primary.

Part of the Limbaugh logic seems to be that the soul of the Republican Party would be better served in the long run by giving the Democrats a term or two in the White House, just so they can muck things up. But on issues like the war and judges, could Democrats really hurt themselves among the general electorate? Even if Iraq descends into chaos as the result of a precipitous withdrawal, Democrats can remind the public that those are the pains of cleaning up George Bush’s mess. Similarly, few people other than the right-to-life crowd and readers of the National Review will notice - or care - if the philosophy of the Supreme Court drifts left. But such a trend would put on hold, at least for another generation, any attempt to unwind decades of judicial activism.

In short, conservatives need to remember that to the victor go the spoils. And McCain needs to remember that he won’t get elected just because of his “maverick” status among independents and at the editorial board of New York Times. It’s going to be an awkward courtship, and nobody should expect a happy marriage right away.

But it’s time for conservatives and McCain to at least chat over a cup of coffee.