Nah
Posted on 02/06/2008 2:55:51 PM PST by bshomoic
Analysis: McCain New Face Of GOP
Campaign '08 Complete Coverage
Super Tuesday In-Depth
WASHINGTON (CBS) ― This analysis was written by CBSNews.com senior political editor Vaughn Ververs.
After amassing a huge delegate lead in 21 Super Tuesday contests, John McCain is the new face of the Republican Party. Despite loud and sometimes bitter opposition from some conservative corners, the Arizona senator has edged ever closer to winning his party's presidential nomination.
Both Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee pledged to fight on. But the sheer delegate deficit each must now erase to overtake McCain will make it harder by the day for them to have a realistic chance.
Charting a path to the nomination for either candidate at this point is challenging, at best. Some southern or quasi-southern states remain targets for Huckabee -- states like Virginia, Kentucky and Mississippi. For Romney, who is out of home states to run in, the obvious targets are even less clear. But big states like Ohio and Texas would surely be on the list. What Romney does have is the money to keep running.
Big wins will be harder to come by now because just two pure winner-take-all contests remain - Virginia and the District of Columbia. The remaining states mostly allocate their delegates by congressional district winners, meaning it will be harder to overcome McCain's delegate lead. And over half the delegates headed to the national convention have been selected already.
"Winning states is important, but it's really about delegates," said Michigan Congressman Peter Hoekstra, a Romney backer. "Romney has to win enough delegates to get a reasonable number of people to look at him." True, but the bigger question is whether he can possibly cobble together enough to win.
Huckabee now looks very much like a regional candidate. He has not won outside of the South since Iowa and showed little strength in the Midwest, Northeast and West on Super Tuesday, despite winning five states.
Romney has proven he can win his various home states - Massachusetts, Utah and, earlier, Michigan. - but little else. What Romney did that Huckabee did not was demonstrate considerable strength nationwide, from Georgia to Colorado and points in-between.
Each will have something to hang on to after this day, Romney a likely second-place in the delegate count, Huckabee some statewide wins.
In the end, Romney has been stymied by better-known, more able candidates. He may also be the victim of a serious misunderstanding about what conservatism means today. Romney has sought to cast the race as being about who is more conservative, amplifying the mantra started by angry talk-show hosts protesting that McCain was not one of them.
But Romney seems to have missed his own stump speech in which he frequently talks about the three legs of the conservative coalition - economic, national security and social issues.
Among Republican primary voters nationwide voting on Super Tuesday, McCain won among those who cited the economy as their biggest concern, even as they thought Romney the best candidate to deal with it, according to CBS News exit polls. Whether those voters were conservative or not, they are speaking for the Republican Party.
McCain also won among those who cited national security as their top concern but finished third among those seeking a candidate who shares their values. In other words, McCain won two of the three legs of conservatism. Most importantly, McCain won the delegate rich (and winner-take-all) states giving him a big leg up on getting to the 1,191 needed to lock up the nomination.
McCain is for sure the choice of moderate and independent-minded Republican voters. There is also some evidence that he's not the overwhelming choice among them.
Thirty-seven percent of primary voters on Super Tuesday called themselves pro-choice but just 51 percent of those voters chose McCain. And on immigration, one of the most contentious issues in this election, 54 percent said they oppose the deportation of illegal immigrants and just 46 percent of them voted for McCain. But McCain did not win traditional Republican states in the south or west, carrying more Democratic-friendly territory in the northeast as well as California.
The road to eventual victory may be daunting for Romney and Huckabee but the path to reconciliation within the party itself may prove more so. The rancorous debate that has erupted in recent days between Romney and Rush Limbaugh on one side attacking McCain and Huckabee on the other will need time to heal.
Limbaugh isn't sounding optimistic about a coming-together anytime soon. "If down the road you think that the election of Obama, Hillary, or McCain is going to result in very bad things happening to the country," he said on his radio show yesterday, "Who would you rather get the blame for it?"
Ironically, it's the Democratic race which might relieve the pressure on Huckabee and Romney to bow out. Nothing would soothe a party with a financial and energy deficit than a head-start on the general election, allowing their nominee to repair the party and begin the fall campaign in earnest.
Yes, McCain will be the face of the GOP...for the next 9 months, but no longer after that.
the way I see it the the Big TV Industry would prefer McCain in there v. Obama or Clintoon because it would be way easier to demonize him as a crusty old mean-spirited white man...with Romney this strategy would be impossible. Romney/Huckabee could be a formidable ticket appealing to the ordinary and leaving the Hollywood limo crowd for the “rock star” Hilary...
I C BS here.
We all know McCain cannot win. Those of us who actually care about our political agenda and want it advanced and are not mindless Party Uber Alles types who treat this as if it were a sporting event know it. We do not watch polls to decide who to support the way McCainiac do. Given the Democrats structural advantage in organization, turn out and money who had a better chance of winning?
Whole Country is in a foul mood. They hate the Political class with a passion. Everyone from the President to the least member of Congress has record low sustained political approval numbers.
The GOP, because they hold the WH, is seen as the party in power.
Given the country’s furious Anti DC mood who has a better chance of winning against Clinton Inc?
A tired broke old 25 year member of the DC Establishment who is running on a Leftist agenda with a long politically corrupt history who virtually no one in the Conservative Movement likes or trusts who’s stated political agenda is to be Democrat Lite
or
an articulate successful business man and former Gov with a $250 million war chest who at least is running on a solidly Conservative agenda who can credibly run a Reagan style “we got to go clean up DC” campaign?
9 months ago according to all the National Polls the only person who could beat Clinton Inc was Rudy G. Where is he now?
That is where the GOP and McCain will be in Nov 2008. The GOP will be lucky to win 10 states. We are going to get massacred down ticket also. The Democrats are fired up. They are going to have huge turnout since it will be the 1st chance in 15 years for them to control the whole Govt. They are like we were in 2000. They will be ground glass Democrats.
The Mods-Indys are NOT going to vote for McCain’s style of Democrat lite politics. The are in a foul anti Establishment mood and McCain is as Establishment as they get. A career old WASP politician. The Mods/Indys are going to vote for the the Democrat real deal over the Democrat Lite GOP brand.
The Conservative/Republican will not be energized and so many will not show up, certainly will not volunteer their time and money to campaign. McCain’s GOTV will be a sad joke. After all, what the difference between one tax hiking big Govt authoritarian Liberal or the other to them. Either way Conservatives get nothing
The GOP are going to get a 1980s style butt kicking in Nov. Only this time the Anti Reagan the Democrats will be running is the one winning the landslide.
Hear-hear! And then McCain and his RINO ilk will be purged from the rolls and have to go back to being the Democrats they truly are.
Sooooo.....do you think there’s any chance of a Romney/Huckabee ticket?
That is why I am identified as a conservative only and not a republican anymore ( as of a couple years ago ).
Wrong body part
Prepare to hear this day in and day out, folks.
lazy reporting - it’ll be way easier writing about McCain “dust-ups” than important issues...that way elevating the Democrats as above the fray - this would be far more difficult with a Romney or Huckleberry
Minor point of contention...... I believe the $250 million figure is Romney’s net worth, not his campaign war chest.
The *A$$* of the GOP is more like it!
I hope not.
I’ll vote for him if he’s the nominee, he he should be nothing more to the party than a figurehead, to be opposed when necessary.
Opps, good point. Thanks for the correction
Nah
Won’t be the face of my GOP.....never.....
Conservatives lost the GOP presidential candidate to the GOP liberal wing.
Time to focus more time and energy on the House and Senate.
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