It's too early for conservatives to kiss and make up with John McCain, Valentine's Day or not. We're not ready to give him our unconditional hearts (or minds). The notion that he's the "presumptive nominee" eliminates the other suitors, but it doesn't make him more loveable.
No matter how entertaining Mike Huckabee is, strumming his guitar or showing a wickedly winning sense of humor, the life of the party is rarely the man to run the student government or the country's government. John McCain is the serious leader we could vote for, even if he doesn't have a great personality. If Hollywood should make a political version of "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner," the surprise guest would not be a mainstream black man -- that's so 20th century -- but a white man resembling John McCain. The conservative parents would object to the marriage because he wasn't conservative enough and they didnt think he could make their daughter happy.
Joseph Bottum of the Weekly Standard posits a different Hollywood analogy, casting John McCain as the marshal of Hadleyville instead of Gary Cooper in a remake of "High Noon." The bad guys are out to get him, and the upright citizens spurn pleas to help. They've got their reasons, which boil down to the fact that they're cowards.
The marshal's wife Amy, a Quaker with a sweet religious disposition played by Grace Kelly, abhors violence of every kind (just like Barack Obama and his followers). But she fires the gun that kills the man who would have shot the marshal dead. She goes against her principled pacifism for many reasons, not the least of which is love, and because she understands the stakes. Amy could symbolize the social conservatives of the modern Republicans. If they don't turn out to vote for John McCain, no matter how principled their reasons, their enemies win.
This election season cries for metaphor and analogy because there's such dramatic contrast in the candidates. We're watching great theater, with multiple plots and a lot of subplots.