McCain Super Tuesday Gains Put him Closer to GOP Nomination

WASHINGTON — Arizona Sen. John McCain, once viewed as candidate headed nowhere, took major strides toward the Republican presidential nomination by amassing important Super Tuesday wins in states that awarded delegates on a winner-take-all basis and capping off the day with a big win in California.

On a night when each of the three major GOP contenders could point to victories, McCain clearly had the most cause to celebrate.

And he did, telling supporters in Phoenix "we've won a number of important victories in the closest thing we've ever had to a national primary."

"We've won some of the biggest states in the country," he said, adding with a smile, "And although I've never minded the role of the underdog and have relished as much as anyone come-from-behind wins, tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination for president of the United States. And I don't really mind it one bit."

Bolstering McCain's wins were former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's strong showings that denied wins to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who now must decide if he has any chance of catching the surging McCain.

With only Alaska undecided, McCain won nine states (including seven winner-take-all contests), Romney six and Huckabee five.

Huckabee, dealing critical blows to Romney by beating him in several states and dividing the conservative vote with him in states carried by McCain, captured Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, Alabama and Arkansas on a Super Tuesday that included 21 GOP contests offering 1,023 delegates. It takes 1,191 delegates to win the nomination.

McCain's Tuesday wins brought his delegate total to at least 439, significantly ahead of Romney's 160 , Huckabee's 128 and Texas Rep. Ron Paul's nine.

Still to be divided were California's 170 delegates, awarded proportionately based on results in congressional districts.

Romney captured his home state, a victory that was less valuable because its 40 delegates were divided proportionally based on vote totals. He also won Utah, North Dakota, Minnesota, Montana and Colorado. Utah was the only winner-take-all state in the Romney column.

Early Wednesday, there were reports that Romney would hold meetings later in the day to assess the future of his candidacy. Next up on the GOP schedule are Saturday contests in Louisiana, Kansas and Washington state, followed next Tuesday by battles in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

The Texas and Ohio GOP primaries are on March 4, the same day as Rhode Island and Vermont.

In Tuesday night speeches to supporters, Huckabee and Romney showed no signs of giving up. Huckabee, however, was ready to write off Romney after defeating him in several key states.

"Over the last few days a lot of people have been trying to say this is a two-man race," Huckabee told supporters in Little Rock. "Well you know what? It is and we're in it."

Romney ignored that kind of talk and told supporters in Boston, "We're going to go all the way to the convention. We're going to win this thing.''

But that was before California, where 170 delegates were divided proportionally, and Missouri and its 58 winner-take-all delegates, went to McCain.

Headed into Super Tuesday, McCain had 102 delegates, Romney was second with 93 and Huckabee had 43. Texas Rep. Ron Paul had four.

Huckabee had his eyes on Texas as Tuesday's votes were tallied. "For an Arkansas Razorback to be going to Texas and start loving on those folks, you know it's got to be politics,'' he told ABC.

Janet Huckabee, his wife, echoed the sentiment in Little Rock, saying, "Next month we're going to say, 'Hook 'em Horns.' Get ready for that Texas. Here we come.''

Tuesday's balloting came amid continued heated rhetoric between McCain and Romney as the Arizona senator tried to complete a comeback from mid-summer doldrums in which his campaign was broke and his poll numbers were down. At one point, the 71-year-old McCain took out a life insurance policy to back a loan needed for his campaign.

Romney, his back against the wall as McCain momentum grew with his Florida victory last week, spent Tuesday hammering on what became the central message of his largely self-funded campaign: McCain is not a conservative a vote for Huckabee - a favorite of some conservatives - was akin to a vote for McCain.

In his speech to the West Virginia state convention, Romney said the contest is a ``battle (for) the heart and soul of the Republican Party.''

``You're going to have to make a choice as to whether you're going to select a conservative, myself, to lead the party, somebody who will stay in the house that Ronald Reagan built, or whether we're going to take a left turn as a party,'' he said, prior to reeling off a series of issues on which he claims McCain is no conservative.

McCain understood the challenge he faced among some Republicans who have never loved him. "My job is to convince everybody that I'm the conservative candidate,'' he said on CBS.

The West Virginia contest, a state convention that awarded 18 delegates to the winner, became a contentious microcosm in a race in which Romney and Huckabee have been splitting the conservative vote and McCain has dominated among moderate Republicans and independents.

Romney was denied the day's first victory when McCain supporters teamed with Huckabee backers in West Virginia to move the state into the Huckabee column. In the first ballot, Romney led with 41 percent, nine points short of what he needed for a victory that would have given him the 18 delegates. Huckabee was second with 33 percent.

In the second ballot, McCain supporters sided with Huckabee, putting him at 52 percent to Romney's 47 percent. The move by McCain backers drew anger from the Romney camp.

``Unfortunately, this is what Senator McCain's inside Washington ways look like,'' said Romney Campaign Manager Beth Myers. ``He cut a back room deal with the tax-and-spend candidate he thought could best stop Governor Romney's campaign of conservative change.''

Huckabee accused Romney of ``whining'' about the West Virginia outcome.

``Yesterday he was chiding me,'' Huckabee said on CNN. "He said not to whine. Today, he's changed his position on whining and today he's for whining. So once again, Mitt has been able to take both sides of all issues, including whining.''

The battle over McCain's conservative credentials played out Tuesday on conservative talk radio - a universe in which he remains largely unloved - and was reflected in exit polls.

In Georgia, the southern state with the earliest polling place closing time, exit polls showed the challenge McCain continues to face among conservatives. Two-thirds of the voters surveyed called themselves conservatives, with McCain winning support from only 21 percent of them. Huckabee took 38 percent of the conservatives, one point more than Romney.

Sixty-four percent said abortion should be illegal, and only 25 percent of them voted for McCain. Huckabee led at 42 percent among that segment, with Romney second at 29 percent.

Sixty-four percent identified themselves as born-again or evangelical Christians, and McCain got only 25 percent of their votes.

There was a similar dynamic in Arizona, where despite McCain's home state win, he failed to prevail among conservatives.

Two-thirds of voters surveyed called themselves conservatives, and only 36 percent of them voted for McCain. Romney got 47 percent of the Arizona conservative vote.

Romney's challenge of McCain's conservative credentials got a valuable boost when it was echoed Tuesday by James Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family and a key leader among social conservatives.

Dobson, in a statement read on the conservative radio talk show hosted by Laura Ingraham, said he could not vote for McCain as "a matter of conscience.''

``I'm deeply disappointed the Republican Party seems poised to select a nominee who did not support a constitutional amendment to protect the institution of marriages, who voted for embryonic stem cell research to kill nascent human beings, who opposed tax cuts that ended the marriage penalty and who has little regard for freedom of speech, who organized the Gang of 14 to preserve filibusters and has a legendary temper and often uses foul and obscene language,'' Dobson said.

``I am convinced Senator McCain is not a conservative and in fact has gone out of his way to stick his thumb in the eyes of those who are. He has at times sounded more like a member of the other party,'' Dobson said. He added that a McCain nomination would leave the nation ``the worst choices for president in my lifetime'' and vowed he ``simply will not cast a ballot for president for the first time in my life.''

McCain responded to comments about his temper on CBS by saying there are times when anger is necessary.

``Look, do I get angry sometimes? Should I get angry when there's a guy named (Jack) Abramoff that's ripping off Native American tribes of millions of dollars? Should I get angry when I see this pork barrel spending that goes on? ... Of course,'' he said.

And reprising a line he has used for years as tales of his anger persisted, McCain said, ``I've never been elected Miss Congeniality because I've fought against these practices which have caused the American people to hold us in such low esteem.''

Another talk-radio brush fire was ignited when former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole, the GOP's unsuccessful 1996 presidential nominee, said in a letter to conservative host Rush Limbaugh, that McCain is a ``friend and I proudly wore his POW bracelet bearing his name when he was still a guest at the 'Hanoi Hilton.'''

``I believe our major candidates are mainstream conservatives,'' Dole told Limbaugh, who has been harshly critical of McCain. ``Whoever wins the Republican nomination will need your enthusiastic support.''

Romney, on Fox News, called Dole ``probably the last person I would have wanted (to) write a letter for me.''

``I think there's a lot of folks who tend to think that maybe John McCain's race is a bit like Bob Dole's race. That it's the guy who's next in line, the inevitable choice,'' Romney said.

McCain called for an apology to Dole.

``This is no way to end his campaign,'' he said of Romney, ``by attacking a genuine American war hero.''

Dole said his comment was based on how Dole got the 1996 GOP presidential nomination and was unrelated to his World War II service that included serious wounds that cost him most of the use of one arm.

Dole, said Romney, is ``an American hero, a war hero, a fine man and a great leader of our party.''

``I do not think highly of the mental set that says we should choose our nominee based on how many years they've served and how long they've waited in line,'' Romney said.