On the Radar
Candidates gear up for tomorrow’s Super Tuesday
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by Associated Press
Monday, February 4, 2008
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) —
Sen. John McCain defended his conservative credentials Monday as rival
Mitt Romney claimed he was true to core Republican values in the final
push before Super Tuesday. Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham
Clinton, locked in a tight race, searched for support in the
delegate-rich Northeast. Romney, the former Massachusetts
governor, told voters in a series of coast-to-coast stops that
Republicans were telling him, “We don’t want Senator McCain; we want a
conservative.” McCain leads Romney in national polls and has
seized the momentum and major endorsements after two straight wins in
South Carolina and Florida. Yet, some conservatives are uneasy with the
four-term Arizona senator who has backed a path to citizenship for
illegal immigrants, campaign finance reform and opposed President
Bush’s tax cuts although he now wants to make them permanent. Campaigning
at Boston’s famed Faneuil Hall, McCain defended his GOP record but
insisted he would not hesitate to reach out to Democrats. “As
president of the United States, I will preserve my proud conservative
Republican credentials, but I will reach across the aisle and work
together for the good of this country,” McCain said at a rally in
Boston. McCain has cast Romney as a flip-flopper on key issues.
The Vietnam veteran and longtime member of the Senate Armed Services
Committee contends that his rival lacks the foreign policy and military
affairs experience needed as the country battles Islamic terrorists. On
the Democratic side, Obama and Clinton planned stops in Connecticut and
Massachusetts. Clinton was taking a break from campaign events — and
getting some prime air time — with an appearance on the CBS’ “Late Show
With David Letterman.” She also planned a one-hour interactive town
hall that would be broadcast on the Hallmark Channel. While
normally eschewing poll results, Romney cited one unnamed survey he
said showed him leading in California, and another he said confirmed a
neck-and-neck race in Georgia. “It’s a very tight race. A lot of
people said it’s just going to be, you know, a very easy race for
Senator McCain. But you know what’s happened? Across the country,
conservatives have come together and they say, you know what? We don’t
want Senator McCain; we want a conservative,” Romney said Monday at the
Pancake Pantry in downtown Nashville. Rep. Marsha Blackburn,
R-Tenn., said in introducing Romney: “We know that a lot of
freedom-loving, flag-waving people are going to find their way to the
polls on Tuesday.” Some two dozen states vote on Tuesday, from
New York to California to Alaska. At stake for the Republicans were
1,023 delegates, up for grabs on the Democratic side — 1,681 delegates
to the national convention. McCain has cast Romney as a
flip-flopper on key issues, and the former naval aviator has declared
that his rival lacks the foreign policy and military affairs experience
needed as the country battles Islamic terrorists. From Nashville,
Romney was headed to Atlanta, before turning back around and flying to
Long Beach, Calif., for an evening rally. En route, he was taking
advantage of a refueling stop to hold a news conference in Oklahoma
City. After his stop on the West Coast, Romney was flying overnight to
West Virginia, where he planned to address the state GOP convention
Tuesday morning. Asked if he could continue his candidacy if he
lost California, Romney said: “It depends on what the numbers show.
I’ll take a look at what we<re seeing, and I expect to win, and
I’m going to only forecast for victory and success as I go across the
country.” Romney predicted that he and McCain will divide the spoils in California. “I
think you’re going to see a growing crescendo of Republican
conservatives getting behind my candidacy. Right now that hasn’t
entirely happened. There are a few states where some folks are holding
out for another conservative voice, but my guess is that after Tuesday,
you’re going to see this coalesce into an entirely a two-person race
and in that setting, I think I win,” he said. McCain held the
Boston rally and planned rallies later Monday in New Jersey and New
York. He was also raising campaign cash, holding one fundraiser in
Boston and two in New York. He also planned a news conference in Grand
Central Station in late afternoon, an event that had the potential to
anger commuting New Yorkers.
