Rick Perlstein takes a look at the "culture" of conservatism and John McCain's strange place within it. It's easy to forget how virulent right wing opposition to his candidacy was just a few short months ago. Now, with a fair amount of ring kissing and ego stroking (a strategy that is a little less confined to conservative circles than Perlstein implies), many are falling in line. And as the Democratic menace grows more certain, and Obama and his "radical black theology" -- as Townhall's Amanda Carpenter put it in a CNN appearance with me -- becomes better known, the Right will fall in behind its own. Indeed, Rick is right to call conservatism as a culture, but he doesn't give it enough credit as a tribe. For a long time, McCain was outside the tribe. His elders were in the media, not the churches; his allies were in the center, not the right. McCain may not be entirely of their tribe, but he's certainly not of the Democrats' tribe. And at the end of the day, that will be even more important than his culture.