Now that Mitt Romney has thrown in the towel and endorsed him, the Republican nominee for president will almost certainly be Sen. John McCain.

Attempting residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is surely tough enough without turning your friends into enemies. There are plenty of enemies on the other side who wear different political stripes altogether.

McCain faces a distrustful, dissatisfied, frustrated, and in some cases, downright angry conservative base. Conservatives are not happy with McCain. He has not always carried the conservative torch on immigration, taxes, First and Second Amendment rights, abortion and more. Many of us do not believe that he could even stand in the shadow of Ronald Reagan.

Fueled by radio talkers such as Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and others, many conservatives have been whipped into a roiling anti-McCain froth. McCain needs to make nice with millions of talk-radio listeners and evangelicals or the numbers will not be there for him to win the presidency.

Though no easy task, time is on his side. But if he waits until late spring or early summer to circle the GOP wagons, he will have waited too long.

McCain cannot battle Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Clinton without the support of conservatives, whom some believe McCain does not like anymore than they like him.

The Democrats know this and must surely be licking their chops to attack a wounded GOP nominee.

Failing to unite the GOP will force McCain into fighting a two-front political war. As he tries desperately to prove his conservative credentials to the conservative base, he will also need to fight the political battle of his career against his Democrat contender.

Each of these political fights is taxing enough. Fighting both at the same time will drain much needed energy and coffers.

This is the reason McCain needs to shore up the conservative base as soon as possible. He needs to ride into the Republican Convention on the shoulders of all Republicans, not just moderate Republicans and disenfranchised independents.

McCain’s advisers had better figure out how to sing to the conservative base real quickly or he does not stand a chance at winning.

McCain not only faces the problem of his voting record, he also faces the wrath of conservatives who are widely disappointed in President Bush’s domestic performance. Token tax cuts aside, Bush’s spending habits have not enamored him to the bedrock of the party. Since they cannot take out their angst at Bush at the ballot box, McCain could be the object of their ire unless he establishes credibility with them.

McCain has his political work cut out for him. We will learn much about him in the coming weeks as he deftly tries to navigate both the right and left whitewater rapids of these troubled political times.

Ted Nugent is a Waco-based musician and television show host. Contact Ted at tednugent.com.