Experts note, however, McCain’s shift to the right is natural for any serious presidential candidate, as they must appease their party to receive the nomination. McCain, experts said, actually began aligning with more conservative elements in his party as early as 2004.

The Rev. Keith Butler, Michigan’s Republican committeeman, said he initially held reservations about McCain’s social values. Any wariness about that was calmed when McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate, who Butler said energized a party that was deft of excitement.

“With his pick of Sarah Palin for vice president, that sealed the deal for me and a lot of people in the party,” Butler said. “It showed his commitment to conservative values and to the party.”

Bill Ballenger, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, said McCain might have made a judgment error by appealing to the more conservative portions of the Republican Party. It turned off the more plentiful independent voting demographic, he added.

“If he’s driving away a bunch of people who weren’t maybe wildly enthusiastic about him but would have voted for him over (Barack) Obama, there’s two or three times as many of these tepid voters than those fired up ones on the right,” Ballenger said. “He’s going to lose.”

But McCain’s conservatism is nothing new, said Matt Grossmann, an MSU assistant political science professor and national elections expert. He said people might be surprised by some of McCain’s stances, such as his anti-abortion ideology, because of a myth that McCain is a moderate.

“He built on that maverick image, that he will break with his party,” Grossmann said. “The press has sometimes interpreted that to mean he is a moderate.”

McCain’s more tangible ties with the religious right this election represents a change in his campaign strategy compared to McCain’s run in 2000, when he openly criticized religious right leaders such as Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

“Most people said he ran to the left of Bush and was critical of some constituents of the Republican Party,” Grossmann said. “He learned something from that. You need to run as a conservative to win the Republican primary.”

Ballenger said McCain is simply performing like every other party candidate would to earn the nomination and said America would “probably see the old McCain” if he were elected.

Ballenger also said McCain’s shift is less than that of Democratic presidential candidate Obama who Ballenger feels has moved “dramatically” toward the center. He said Obama was “lucky” he wasn’t in the U.S. Senate when he first spoke out against the Iraq war — which gave the then-Illinois state senator his initial popularity — because he probably would have been persuaded to vote for the war with colleagues, such as Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Phillip DeAngelis, an English senior, said he thinks McCain has maintained a steady ideology throughout his career and campaign. He said picking Palin complements McCain’s political views to forge a more formidable and wide reaching ticket.

“I think he’s just appealing to the American people, not even just his party,” DeAngelis said. “It’s showing that he’s versatile and can look at things differently than he would if he had chosen somebody else.”

Still, David Carlson, an international relations and economics junior, said actions like picking Palin signal an undesirable shift.

“He wanted (Sen.) Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) to be his VP candidate, everybody knew that before he got nominated,” Carlson said. “He was so far out of it when the primaries began, but he came back and instead of sticking with what got him there he sold out.”

Ballenger said any perceived shift is part of a political play in which every candidate acts the same way. But it’s just acting in the end, he said.

“The idea that McCain has sold his soul to the devil and become some conservative right winger is ridiculous,” Ballenger said. “It’s naive and stupid.”