Wednesday, Mar. 05, 2008

McCain clinches win

DALLAS — Eight years after his first bid for the White House ended in a painful defeat — and nine months after his second appeared to have sputtered to an embarrassing end — John McCain capped a spectacular political comeback Tuesday with a four-state sweep that clinched the Republican presidential nomination.

Victories in the Texas, Ohio, Rhode Island and Vermont primaries put McCain, the presumptive nominee for weeks, officially over the top in the number of delegates needed to win the nomination.

His one remaining significant opponent, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, dropped out and said he will do “whatever he can” to help the Arizona senator.

McCain now turns his focus to unifying and inspiring his party, raising money and honing a general-election campaign theme. He has the luxury of doing all that as the Democrats continue their tussle for a nominee.

“Now we begin the most important part of our campaign: to make a respectful, determined and convincing case to the American people that our campaign and my election as president, given the alternatives presented by our friends in the other party, are in the best interests of the country we love,” McCain told supporters Tuesday night.

This morning, McCain is to fly to Washington, where he will have lunch with President Bush in the White House. Then they will make a joint appearance in the Rose Garden, where McCain will receive the endorsement of the man who vanquished him eight years ago in a bitter race.

At McCain’s election-night party in a hotel ballroom here, a poster was unveiled with the number “1,191,” the number of delegates needed for the nomination and a signal that, at long last, it was McCain’s night.

It was supposed to be a lot easier: McCain began his 2008 campaign as the GOP front-runner. But his campaign fell apart last summer amid unrealistic fundraising expectations that were never met, a clash with his party’s base on immigration changes and a war in Iraq that McCain never wavered from supporting, even when it wasn’t clear whether the controversial troop surge McCain championed would succeed.

With virtually no paid staff and little money, McCain retreated to New Hampshire, the site of the campaign’s first primary and of his greatest triumph in 2000, to embrace the retail campaigning he loves best.

Nevertheless, it seems as though fate, played a role.

The risky, last-ditch strategy required virtually everything beyond McCain’s control to break his way:

• Immigration had to fade as an issue after the comprehensive overhaul bill he championed died.

• The troop surge in Iraq had to produce some success to make McCain look both principled and prescient.

• Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an early leader in the polls, had to pull out of New Hampshire, a state tailor-made for his brand of moderate Republicanism.

• Huckabee had to emerge in Iowa to take out former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

• A weakened, distracted Romney had to be ripe for a loss in New Hampshire.

• Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson had to fizzle out but stay in the race long enough to take enough conservative votes from Huckabee in South Carolina to give McCain a win in that state’s key primary.

It all happened.

Major victories on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, put McCain in command. It was only a matter of time before he won enough delegates over his only remaining opponents, Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.

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