John McCain is having troubles with both parts of the Republican coalition that elected George Bush. The social conservatives are in a generally rangy mood, as no one seems to be paying attention to their issues.

All told, Gary Bauer, president of the advocacy group American Values and a veteran of Republican cultural debates, points to "a certain fatigue factor" among social conservatives that amounts to "a big problem for the Republican Party overall." The danger for Republicans isn't that they will lose social-conservative votes to either Democrats Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton but that they will fail to generate the kind of energy and turnout that put Mr. Bush over the top in, among other places, Ohio in 2004.

The other part of the Bush coaltion, the K Street corporate influence crowd, is having their own problems. It seems that McCain was embarrassed when several of his key aides were found to be lobbying for the thugs that run Burma today. So McCain had his former lobbyist/campaign manager issue a "conflict of interest memo. Turns out that was not such a smart idea. Four more key aides have had to resign, with more to come in the next few days. Turns out you can't find any Republican Political operatives who aren't lobbyists.