The Democratic primary was not the only one going on in Pennsylvania yesterday. The Republican primary was also conducted and the results need to be examined. There is practically no chance for anyone but John McCain to win the nomination, but the voters in Pennsylvania have sent him a message that they are not 100% behind him.

While the talk has been about the Democratic race and the conflict between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama splitting the party in two while John McCain can devote his time to working on the general election, the vote in the primary sends him a message that he needs to connect with members of his own party first.

The voting went like this, McCain 73%, Ron Paul, who is still technically in the race 16% and Mike Huckabee 11%. Now this would be an impressive victory for McCain if it were not all but certain that he would be the nominee. Actually McCain already has enough delegates to assure him the nomination. He has 1,331 and only needed 1,191. But for someone who has it sown up to have 27% of the Pennsylvania Republicans voting for someone else, it is a different story. It means that 27% are not supporting him and if he wants to keep their vote in November, he has to unite them behind him.

McCain is considered to be more towards the middle of the road and he has to win over the very conservative members of his party. While it is true that John McCain is leading both of the Democratic contenders in the general election polls, that could very well change when there is a Democratic nominee which makes it all the more important for him to appeal to the different fractions in his own party and the independent voters as well, for they will have a big say in this election.

One of the issues that he is in conflict with the majority of voters is the War in Iraq. He believes we should make a greater troop commitment while poll after poll shows a growing majority of voters wanting the troops to come home. His tax cut plan would be to cut taxes to middle class Americans, which is in line, although not exactly the same, as that of the Democratic candidates. It also brings him in opposition to the tax cuts of the Bush Administration yet in the past he voted to extend the Bush tax cuts.

There will be polls out this week that will give us a good indication on how the American voters view John McCain and what he needs to do to appeal to a broader spectrum of voters and we will look at all of them in depth. The next two weeks are going to be very decisive in determining who he is going to face, but in the meantime he needs to look at what made the 27% of Pennsylvania voters vote for someone else.