McCameronism?

My Sunday Times column is on what McCain seems to be learning from David Cameron, the leader of Britain’s Tories:

As Tim Pawlenty, the young Republican governor of Minnesota, noted recently: “The country is changing. The Republican party has to have a message that reflects faces and voices of America. We have to do a better job of recruiting women candidates, candidates of colour and diversity.” Pawlenty, by the way, is often spoken of as a vice-presidential pick for McCain.

Yes, Bush paid lip service to diversity and had two African-American secretaries of state. But his immigration plans collapsed after a revolt in his own party, his antigay positions alienated him from the more inclusive younger generation and Hurricane Katrina and those scenes from New Orleans killed his small gains among black voters.

McCain, moreover, is up against more than Bush was four years ago. He will almost certainly have to confront a black Democratic rival whose closest competitor was a woman. The danger is that disaffection with the Republican brand and a huge wave of young, black and Latino voters could become an electoral tsunami crushing the Republicans in November.

So McCameronism is the new product. And McCain, who was one of the few American Republicans to visit the young Tory leader before he was riding high in the polls, is trying to follow the British lead.

It’s harder. McCain hasn’t even begun to overhaul his party – and will have to run for office by both disowning and coopting it at the same time, not an easy task.

If elected, he will have to govern as an independent, triangulating away from what is almost certain to be a large Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress.

But this is the only chance he’ll ever get. And if he has to learn a thing or two from a British fortysomething, he’s happy to do so. From Thatcher, we got Reagan. From Cameron, McCain? Unforeseen, for sure. But so has almost everything important that has happened in this election so far.

(Photo: Leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron and Senator John McCain at the Bournemouth International Centre on October 1, 2006 in Bournemouth, England. This was the first party conference since Cameron took over the leadership of the Tory party. By Bruno Vincent/Getty Images.)