Wednesday, Mar. 05, 2008

Huckabee drops out as count seals deal

WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. John McCain clinched the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday in an extraordinary comeback for a candidate whose White House hopes were dashed eight years ago and whose second bid was left for dead eight months ago.

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, McCain’s chief remaining rival, dropped out of the race. He had pledged to stay in until one candidate had enough delegates to earn the nomination.

According to The Associated Press count, McCain, a four-term Arizona senator, surpassed the requisite 1,191 GOP delegates as voters in Ohio, Vermont, Rhode Island and Texas put him over the threshold.

The triumph came one month after his Super Tuesday coast-to-coast victories gave him an insurmountable lead in the delegate hunt and forced his chief rival, Mitt Romney, to drop out of the race.

“It’s a very humbling experience,” he said of finally clinching the nomination. Addressing supporters in Dallas later, McCain said, “I understand the responsibilities I incur with this nomination, and I give you my word, I will not evade or slight a single one.”

He told chanting supporters, “Presidential candidates are judged on their records, their character and the whole of their life experiences. But we are also expected to concentrate our efforts on the challenges that will confront America on our watch and explain how we intend to address them.”

Interrupted by applause, he encouraged the audience to stand up for America. “We don’t hide from history,” he said. “We make history.”

McCain was heading to the White House for a meeting today. Republicans won’t officially nominate McCain until early September at the GOP’s national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Nevertheless, the general election campaign for the Republican nominee-in-waiting begins now even though Democrats still haven’t chosen a candidate. U.S. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton continue a protracted battle for their party’s nod, leaving McCain an opportunity to unify his party.

“The big battle’s to come,” he said of the general election.

After racking up wins in states across the country, McCain entered Tuesday’s contests with 1,014 delegates, 177 short of what he needed. McCain won all 17 delegates in Vermont, and at least 69 in Texas, 58 in Ohio and nine in Rhode Island, according to early returns. McCain also picked up about 30 endorsements from party leaders who will automatically attend the convention.

In anticipation of the accomplishment, workers earlier in the evening prepared to hoist a five-foot-tall banner reading “1,191,” the number of delegates he needed, in the Dallas hotel ballroom where he planned to speak.

The delegate milestone effectively ends the bruising GOP primary fight that began just days after the November 2006 congressional elections when a slew of Republicans launched candidacies to succeed George W. Bush. At one point, the crowded field reached a dozen.

Only Texas Rep. Ron Paul remains. Paul has not indicated when he will concede.

McCain’s feat caps a remarkable turnaround for a man who began running for president roughly a decade ago when he plotted a bid to overtake Bush, then-Texas governor and the establishment favorite. Back then, the Republican, with a long reputation of bucking the party, shocked Bush and much of the GOP with his come-from-nowhere double-digit win in New Hampshire. The race turned nasty as it moved to South Carolina, and McCain’s bid never recovered from a loss there.

Nonetheless, that campaign put McCain — already somewhat known because of his Vietnam war-hero biography — on the national political map and set the stage for his campaign sequel.

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