PHILADELPHIA – It’s not easy trying to be a major-party presidential nominee and a political maverick at the same time. So John McCain is finding out.

His prospects for defeating Democrat Barack Obama in November rely in large part on how well he handles the two roles and the inevitable tensions between them.

As the presumptive Republican nominee, McCain needs to hold onto the party’s base voters, most of whom admire President Bush. As maverick, he must reach out to independents and Democrats, many of whom consider the incumbent a failure.

The events of the past week show the difficulty involved in performing both parts.

On Tuesday, he unveiled a new ad that portrayed himself as maverick: “John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming … five years ago.”

Before the day was over, though, he declared his support for lifting the federal moratorium on offshore oil drilling. This new position, which was more in keeping with his party’s mainstream, was embraced within hours by George W. Bush.

Said Frank Luntz, a pollster with Republican roots: “McCain’s independence is the only hope he has of winning the presidency, and it helps whenever he can draw contrasts with the president. …

“John McCain isn’t George Bush,” Luntz said. “They’re very different people with a different ideology, a different approach to governing, different experiences. But McCain cannot win if he’s seen as more of the same.”

The Arizona senator prevailed in the primaries largely because his party’s voters decided that his reputation for independence made him their best option – against a political landscape colored by a sagging economy, an unpopular war and a more unpopular president.

Analysts say that the strength of McCain’s persona is the reason he’s within range of Obama, trailing in most polls by 4 or 5 percentage points.

But if McCain is too much the maverick or opens too much distance between himself and the president (even with Bush’s low approval rating), he risks alienating Republican loyalists.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., who supports McCain after initially opposing him, wrote earlier this year that conservatives have reason to “worry about where McCain’s passions lie.”

Said Stephen Hess, who has advised three Republican administrations: “McCain has been a maverick; they can’t take that away from him. But going forward, he’s at the head of a long army, and the army’s called the GOP.”

The polls indicate the independent image that defined McCain during his run for the Republican nomination eight years ago – an image that has broad appeal – is not as strong as it once was.

Last week, the ABC News/Washington Post poll asked voters whether they thought a President McCain would chart a new course or offer the same leadership as Bush.

By 3-2, they picked the Bush option. Voters value McCain’s experience and his national-security credentials, according to the polls, particularly when they compare him with Obama. But the majority no longer sees McCain as his own man.

“In the polls, he seems to get no credit whatsoever for the bipartisan work that he has done,” said Bill Carrick, a Democratic strategist based in California. “And the Republican base is still a little suspicious of him because he has been seen as a maverick.”

During a conversation earlier this month aboard his campaign bus, McCain said he was confident the electorate eventually would come to see him as he sees himself: as a conservative Republican with an independent streak.

“Most observers say that this is probably a campaign that has more engaged the attention of the American people than any campaign in recent history, given our economic difficulties and our national-security challenges, etc.,” the senator said. “So that gives me confidence that the voters will examine my candidacy … “

In that conversation, McCain pointed to his differences with President Bush on climate change, domestic spending and the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo.

He also recalled his high-profile dispute with the White House over his early and outspoken support for sending more troops to Iraq – a policy the administration ultimately adopted. That doesn’t help him with voters who oppose the war and want to see it ended quickly.

At a subsequent town hall meeting in Pemberton, Burlington County, N.J., McCain talked a lot about cutting taxes and appointing strict constructionists to the Supreme Court, traditional Republican positions. He also declared: “I know how to work with the Democrats, preserving my conservative principles.”

The other side is repeatedly making the argument that McCain is running for “George Bush’s third term.”

Last week, Obama said that “it’s my impression that John McCain has adopted not only George Bush’s policies but George Bush’s playbook.”

U.S. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., said that “John McCain has fully embraced the failed, tragic 1/8foreign 3/8 policy of the Bush administration over the last seven-and-a-half years.”

McCain’s aides and allies counter that Obama has done far less than their man in terms of bucking party orthodoxy and seeking consensus in the Senate. The McCain bipartisan resume includes work on such subjects as campaign-finance and immigration reform.

Reclaiming the banner of reform, which he owned during his 2000 presidential run, is critical for him. Witness his campaign slogan: “Reform. Prosperity. Peace.” In that regard, being the one candidate to agree to federal spending limits for the general election may help.

But to be seen as a maverick, analysts say, he’ll have to act the part more than he has to date.

“He’s trying to turn the page from where Bush is, and it’s a very heavy page,” said James Thurber, a political scientist at American University in Washington. “With everything working against him, it’s incredible that he’s even competitive. But he is.”

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(c) 2008, The Philadelphia Inquirer.

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AP-NY-06-21-08 1508EDT