NASHVILLE, Tenn.– Sen. John McCain defended his conservative credentials Monday as rival Mitt Romney claimed he was true to core Republican values in the finalpush before SuperTuesday. 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.
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 will 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.
