Once rivals, McCain and Romney make up

At one point, when Mr. McCain offered drinks to his guests, he went out of his way to offer Mr. Romney, a Mormon who does not drink alcohol, a coffee (apparently not realizing that Mormons eschew caffeine as well), said an aide who was told of the encounter later. But the aide said that the gesture seemed appreciated nonetheless.

Mr. McCain — who eagerly tallies the varieties of birds on his property, and likes to show visitors a hawk’s nest — also talked ornithology with Mr. Romney. Mr. Romney later joked at a fund-raiser for Mr. McCain that Mr. McCain had identified 57 varieties of birds on his ranch, but that after a weekend of grilling it was down to 47.

“He knows how to identify birds, how to shoot birds, and how to cook birds!” Mr. Romney said at the fund-raiser last month in Boston, according to a pool report.

Recently, on the back of the McCain campaign bus — a similar setting to the bus where Mr. McCain and his aides once watched, with apparent relish, television news footage of a reporter challenging Mr. Romney’s honesty during the South Carolina primary — Mr. McCain said that he and Mr. Romney had truly buried the hatchet.

“You know I’ve seen other primaries,” Mr. McCain said on a ride from West Virginia to Ohio. “And they’ve been much more spirited, and sometimes much rougher, than ours was. There was a couple occasions where we had fairly sharp differences in the primary, but over all — how long did the primary last? A year? A year and a half? We had a respectful campaign. It wasn’t hard to come back together.”

But the primary clashes between the two reflected how Mr. Romney and Mr. McCain often fought bitterly over issues:

• On immigration, Mr. Romney derided Mr. McCain’s failed immigration bill as amnesty, and said that all illegal immigrants should be sent back to their home countries before they are allowed to apply for citizenship; Mr. McCain said that they should be forced to pay a fine and learn English, but should be allowed to stay in the United States.
• On the environment, Mr. Romney scorned Mr. McCain’s “cap and trade” proposal to limit carbon emissions, saying it would amount to an energy tax on families.
• On the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, which Mr. McCain vowed to close, Mr. Romney said at a debate: “Some people have said we ought to close Guantánamo. My view is, we ought to double Guantánamo.”
• On waterboarding, Mr. Romney declined to characterize that interrogation tactic, a simulated drowning technique, as torture. Mr. McCain chided him, saying that it was.

But aides to both men say they have worked to overcome any lingering hard feelings. And while Mr. McCain has a reputation for a short temper, he is also known for both seeking and granting forgiveness. After his own bitter, bruising primary fight against George W. Bush in 2000, he became a major supporter of Mr. Bush in 2000 and 2004. “I frequently refer to him has the Great Reconciler,” said Charlie Black, a senior McCain adviser who said that Mr. McCain and Mr. Romney had become friends.

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On paper, Mr. Romney has several things going for him. He is good-looking. He is young enough to provide a balance to Mr. McCain, who at 72 would be the oldest man ever elected to a first term, but not so young as to call attention to the issue. He made inroads with some of the conservatives who have been wary of Mr. McCain in the past. And he can more easily be seen as presidential, by virtue of having run for the office. He is a good fund-raiser who can help fill the party’s coffers.

Even one of his biggest drawbacks — the barbs he aimed at Mr. McCain for months and months — could be an advantage. Vice-presidential candidates, after all, are traditionally asked to do much of the attacking in campaigns, to give the presidential candidate the chance to appear above-the-fray.

To that end, Mr. Romney seemed to be auditioning this week, taking on Senator Barack Obama’s economic and foreign policy proposals in a series of interviews. “You know, sweet talk is awful nice,” he said on CNN, “but it doesn’t compare with straight talk.”

This article, Once Bitter Rivals, McCain and Romney Make Up, first appeared in The New York Times.

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