It was a blustery February day outside the Eagan studios of AM 1280 The Patriot as local McCain coordinator Ben Golnik gamely fielded questions from ardent conservatives -- many anxious about his candidate.

Is McCain weak on border protection? Not skeptical enough on global warming? Callers' concerns ranged from mild doubts to outright disbelief that McCain would uphold conservative values as president.

With the characteristic bluntness of talk radio, Joe of Burnsville summed up it up this way: "Everyone thinks John McCain's going to ultimately shift to the right when he's never been ..."

It's the kind of conservative skepticism that McCain is battling in Minnesota and elsewhere with somewhat mixed results -- and most recently, to hear some conservatives tell it, with the unintended help of the New York Times.

Ever since he became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee with his Super Tuesday triumphs on Feb. 5, McCain and his backers have used talk-radio appearances, speeches, blogs, conference calls, endorsements and closed-door meetings to reach out to a somewhat dubious conservative base.

They've been trying to convince conservatives that he is a worthy standard bearer for the movement that rose to power with Ronald Reagan and has been a dominant force in American political life ever since.

Some Minnesota conservatives, like their counterparts around the country, still need convincing.

Golnik won over at least one doubtful Minnesota conservative with his radio appearance -- co-host Michael Brodkorb, a radio personality and conservative blogger who voted uncommitted at his caucus precinct but has since come to see McCain as a solid Republican nominee.

"When the choice is between [McCain and] Sen. Obama or Hillary Clinton, I think the choice will be clear," Brodkorb said.

Great guy, but...

Other Minnesota conservatives aren't yet so sure.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty's campaigning for McCain seemingly had little effect on state Republican caucus-goers, who gave Mitt Romney a solid victory over McCain on Feb. 5.

Before that, state party Chairman Ron Carey had endorsed Mike Huckabee. That battle is over, Carey said Friday, and now it's time for Republicans to unify behind McCain.

"We have much more that unites us than separates us," Carey said.

A Fox News poll taken last week suggests, in fact, that Democratic presidential contenders Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama may have a tougher time with their base than McCain will have with his.

The poll found that 75 percent of Republicans said that they would definitely vote for McCain, while just 65 percent and 63 percent of Democrats said they would definitely vote for Obama and Clinton, respectively. Only 6 percent of Republicans said they would never vote for McCain.

Nevertheless, burying the hatchet has been tough for many conservatives, said national political analyst Larry Sabato of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

"One [message] is, 'I want you to know how unhappy I am about the positions you've taken and I want to see you change,'" Sabato said. "The other is, 'Reconcile? Hell, no!'"

Even an ex-colleague of McCain's, former U.S. Sen. Rod Grams of Minnesota, said he can't support McCain "right now" and admitted that he doesn't know that he could trust him in the White House.

"I've known John a long time and, personally, he's a great guy," Grams said. "But I just can't agree with him on a lot of these positions where I'd want him to be president."

Those positions include McCain's work with Democratic colleagues to regulate campaign contributions, to give illegal immigrants what conservatives consider "amnesty," and to limit greenhouse gas emissions -- legislation known as McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Lieberman, respectively.

"When he says he would reach across the aisle, that's because Republicans wouldn't grab his hands on these crazy bills," Grams said.

Making the case

Supporters cite McCain's 82.3 lifetime conservative voting record, as registered by the American Conservative Union, but critics note his score has been lower in recent years.

McCain has dismissed the idea that he is in trouble with the conservative base, but has lined up endorsements from family values activist Gary Bauer, House Republicans (after a closed-door meeting) and Reagan's vice president, former President George H.W. Bush.

The current President Bush hasn't yet endorsed McCain, though he has called him a "true conservative."

Andy Aplikowski, who chairs the Senate District 51 Republicans in Blaine and writes the blog Residual Forces, said that McCain can help himself most by listening to people rather than lecturing them, and by naming a running mate with solid conservative chops.

"I think probably, at the end of the day, the case that's made is the one you're seeing publicly -- on most things [McCain] is pretty conservative," said Dan Hofrenning, a political science professor at St. Olaf College in Northfield.

"He wants to make the Bush tax cuts permanent and he's a strong supporter of the Iraq war. There's an appeal to economic conservatives, and on the social issues, he has a pretty strong pro-life voting record."

After the Times

Conservatives may be more sympathetic to McCain's appeal since the New York Times carried a story this week in which unnamed aides said McCain years ago had been unduly helpful to a female lobbyist.

"Nothing motivates Republicans more than an attack from the New York Times on a fellow Republican," Brodkorb said.

Despite Jason Lewis' own considerable doubts about McCain, the KTLK-FM talk show host said the Times story will speed up the party's inevitable rally around the Arizona senator, but not necessarily energize the conservative base.

McCain's Minnesota backers include several current and former legislators and party leaders. One of them is former state party Chairman Ron Eibensteiner, who said that he agreed to support McCain at Pawlenty's request and because he's better than someone in the White House who's against you 95 percent of the time.

"If I had my choice," Ei-bensteiner said, "I'd like to see Ronald Reagan run again -- or someone like him."

Staff researcher Roberta Hovde, the Associated Press, Fox News and USA Today contributed to this story.

Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455