Posted on 02/06/2008 2:03:51 AM PST by moderate_conservative
ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released the following remarks by John McCain as prepared for delivery tonight in Phoenix, Arizona:
Thank you. Tonight, my friends, we have won a number of important victories in the closest thing we have ever had to a national primary. We've won some of the biggest states in the country. We have won primaries in the west, the south, the midwest, and the northeast. And although I've never minded the role of the underdog, and have relished as much as anyone come from behind wins, tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party frontrunner for the nomination of President of the United States. And I don't really mind it one bit.
I am so grateful to so many people for what we accomplished tonight, all the staff, supporters and volunteers who stuck with us through thick and thin, and worked so hard on my behalf. I owe you all a debt I can never fully repay. But I promise you I will never forget it, and I will work every day of my life to prove myself worthy of your faith in me. I want to especially thank those of you who have recently joined our campaign, and who were so indispensible to our success tonight.
Thank you, of course, to my family: my wife, Cindy, my children, Meghan, Bridget, Doug and Andy, and my children who could not be here, and my wonderful mother, Roberta McCain. It is obvious to me as it is to everyone that I could not have done this without you. And, finally, thank you, Arizona. It is wonderful to be home tonight among so many of our friends to celebrate this night. I was over forty years old before I could claim a hometown, and I cannot express how fortunate I feel to have found a home in this beautiful state that has come to mean so much to me. I am, as is often reported, a little superstitious. So I don't want to make any exaggerated predictions, and there is still a long road ahead. However, I think it is fair to say that we might have come a little bit closer today to the day when mothers in Arizona might be able to tell their children that someday they could grow up to be president.
I want to congratulate Governor Huckabee and his supporters on their success today. Not for the first time, he has surprised the rest of us, and proved again his exceptional skills as a campaigner, and the extraordinary commitment and determination of the people who believe so passionately in him. I salute you. And I want to congratulate Governor Romney as well on his wins today. He and I have been going at it pretty hard over the last few weeks, and he is a tough competitor. The closeness of the contest in California is testament to that, and to the dedication of his supporters, and I salute them too. This election, like any election, is a rough and tumble business. We all want to win, and we all fight as hard as we can to do it. But I have respect for people who are willing to accept the extraordinary demands, all the ups and downs, of such a tough and long contest. And Governor Romney has mine.
My friends, we have a ways to go still, but we are much closer to the victory we have worked so hard to achieve. I am confident we will get there. And I am mindful that I am not only running for the highest office in the greatest country on earth, but that I am also running for the great privilege of leading the party that has been my political home for a quarter century. I am grateful for and humbled by the prospect. And I promise you, if I am so fortunate to win your nomination, I will work hard to ensure that the conservative philosophy and principles of our great party -- principles that have done so well by the country we love -- will again win the votes of a majority of the American people, and defeat any candidate our friends in the other party nominate. I am as confident tonight as I have ever been that we can succeed in November by uniting our party in our determination to keep our country safe, proud, prosperous and free, and by again making a persuasive case to independents and to those enlightened members of the other party that the great Ronald Reagan claimed for our party.
We will do it by standing up forcefully for those principles that have made our party and our country so successful, and by rejecting appeals for retreat and timidity in the face of the challenges of our time, challenges which are our duty and privilege to overcome. If I am the nominee of our party, I will not let anyone take this country backward to the days when government felt empowered to take from us some of our freedom to decide for ourselves the course and quality of our lives, or when we turned away from threats to our security that were so plainly gathering strength abroad. I have lived my adult life with one purpose greater than all others: to keep America safe from all enemies foreign and domestic. And I will never tire of the honor.
I am a Republican because, like you, I want to relieve the American people of the heavy hand of a government that spends too much of your money on things you neither want nor need, while failing to do as well as we should the things none of us can do individually. I am a Republican because, like you, I believe government must defend our nation's security wisely and effectively, because the cost of our defense is measured in losses so hard to bear and in the heartbreak of so many families. I am a Republican because, like you, I believe government must respect our values because they are the true source of our strength; and enforce the rule of law, which is the first defense of freedom. I am a Republican because I believe the judges we appoint to the federal bench must understand that enforcing our laws, not making them, is their only responsibility. I am a Republican because I believe, like you, that government should tax us no more than necessary, spend no more than necessary, and keep out of the way of the most industrious, ingenious, and optimistic people in the history of the world . I am a Republican because I believe, like you, that it is the strength, courage, wisdom and patriotism of free people -- not the government -- who have made this country the extraordinarily successful place it is. My friends, my purpose is to preserve and strengthen our freedom, the freedom I have defended all my adult life, and I will not let anyone or anything deter me.
Nothing in America is inevitable. We are the captains of our fate. We can overcome any challenge as long as we keep our courage and stand by our principles. I intend to make my stand on those principles, and trust in the judgment of the American people I serve. So stand up with me, my friends, stand up, and together let us put America -- her strength, her ideals, her future -- before all else. It is an honor greater than all others to serve this country, the love of my life, and I thank you from the bottom of heart for helping me serve her a little while longer.
Thank you and God bless you.
Super Tuesday Winners
Democrats
Clinton AR, AZ, CA, MA, NJ, OK, NY, TN
Obama AL, AK, CO, CT, DE, GA, ID, IL, KS, MN, MO, ND, UT
Republicans
McCain AZ, CA, CT, DE, IL, MO, NJ, NY, OK
Romney AK, CO, MA, MN, MT, ND, UT
Huckabee AL, AR, GA, TN, WV
PING!
Viva la rasa!
Signed up on 2/2/08 to spam us?
Go away, McCrapstain shill.
My friend, this is not spam but truth.
You’re not my friend.
You are a shill for the McPain campaign.
In other words — you are a willing dupe. A footsoldier for the Left.
Guess I'll have to write in for Hunter / Thompson.
It is also possibly the stupidest of all tax hikes. A Fed Gas Tax hike in order to grow the Govt to fight the myth of Man Made Global Warming.
Boy there is one policy of McCain’s that is really going to sell his new brand of Democrat Lite politics with a GOP label to the voters!
Be sure to stick around in Nov Liberal Republican. It is going to be fun reposting all your posts to you and watch you try desperately to rationalize why your god McCain got his butt kicked so disastrously by the Democrats.
Maybe, but if Hitlery is the nominee we will have no choice.
But all that is beside the point. We all know McCain cannot win. We actually care about our political agenda and want it advanced. We are not mindless Party Uber Alles types who treat this as if it were a sport. Cheering on their team no matter how bad they are. 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 politican. 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.
I, I, I, I. For McCain, like BJ Bill Clinton, it’s all about him. The phoniness, the self-absorbtion, the narcissism, the anger, the bitterness in McCain is just like Bill Clinton. Why is it more people don’t see this? Or if they do, it doesn’t matter. I still haven’t heard one coherent argument for McCain. I heard a bunch of hope. I heard a bunch of lies. I’ve heard a bunch of promise. I’ve heard smears. But I haven’t heard a case for McCain.
Your user name is a turn off. There is no such thing as a “moderate conservative”. You either are or you aren’t.
>> vote and support the GOP nominee, whoever he is...
News flash, there, suckup.
McCrapstain is the choice of the liberal media.
He’s not the choice of the Grand Old Party. At least, not the real one. Maybe the countryclub RINO version YOU belong to.
Can some folks please retrace the steps for me, and tell me how we ended up with McCain? How did we get this nut handed to us…shoved down our throats if you will?
In no way am I saying the other two were acceptable, because weren’t.
Thank you.
You should start to think that R.I.N.O.s are elected republicans and they have been the majority for years (and will be for years to come). Maybe McCain is a C.I.N.O. (”C” stands for conservative). For me, however, he is conservative enough.
>> For me, however, he is conservative enough.
What the hell does THAT mean?
... he won’t take EVERY nickel you make in taxes?
... SOME of his friends aren’t liberal vermin like Kennedy?
... He’ll trample on only A FEW of your Constitutional rights?
... He’ll mollycoddle MOST, BUT NOT ALL terrorists?
What??
Apparently “Moderate Conservative” is the new pc term for RINO.
Not feelin' very proud lately, but I'm stuck with the name. I'll support whomever I wish, thank you.
They all had good nights. McCain won in very liberal states tonight, Huck won some of the South and Romney won the mountain. I actually hope they all stay in until March when Texas votes. A state like Texas should not be left out of the Republican nominating process. As a matter of fact I think Texas really could determine who the nominee should be.
I will vote for McCain even though I’ve posted here and said that I can’t? Why? The only issue that matters is keeping the savages at bay. If we don’t do that, we won’t have a country at all. If John McCain is the nominee, I will gladly vote for him because I believe he will nuke the savages if needed.
Beyond that, I’ll continue to work for the conservative cause, and keep hope alive for my children.
I will not let any president, especially a democrat president define who I am, ever. I lived through Carter, I lived through Clinton, I can live through the worst they have to throw at us.
Let’s not screw ourselves by sitting out the election in November.
“Can some folks please retrace the steps for me, and tell me how we ended up with McCain? How did we get this nut handed to us…shoved down our throats if you will?”
Well...there were a few factors.
1) The only actually conservative candidates dropped out early in the process: Tancredo, Hunter and Thompson. Granted, they weren’t doing great in the polls, and Thompson lost SC handily. McCain won SC. (big sigh)
2) Romney, like it or not, just has some big negatives. Flip-flopper, rich guy buying the vote, plastic seeming personality. Oh yeah, and he’s a Mormon.
3) Collusion between Huck and McCain. A little lesson in realpolitik for the American people. Huck is suddenly looking like a force in American politics, which earns a “major barf alert” from me. Heaven help us if he ends up as VP!
4) I think the senior vote was critical. All the conservative GOP candidates had a critical eye on Social Security. I believe a lot of seniors voted for a guy they could identify with (heh) and who wouldn’t cut their social programs. Sad, but oh so human.
A very weak field of candidates to start with, and this is how it ends up.
Being a conservative is like being pregnant: either you are or you are not.
This guy “moderate_conservative” is a waste of time. I note his presentation and style of writing is quite similar to that one (Cannot remember his Screename) that was bounced out of here a couple of weeks ago?
bfl
Thank you, PreciousLiberty.
I’ll share something with you.
My sister, who lives in Colorado, came for a visit to Panama a few days ago.
Just before coming, she was having her hair trimmed.
The woman who was trimming her hair had just learned that McCain had been a POW and that Obama’s mother was white.
This lack of seemingly everyday knowledge among the our voters shook me.
What will McCain do with the 450 prisoners who have already occupied the 500 slots at Leavenworth?
There is no such thing.
The ONLY thing Romney or Huck need to do is expose McCain’s shoddy marital past. He is an adulter who left an invalid first wife for a rich single younger woman. He is about as moral as Bill Clinton. I cannot stand John McCain.
Because it’s ‘his turn.’
Just to let you know, this unmoderate conservative has come to the grim conclusion that voting for McCain is the surest method to kill of any conservative influence in the republican party. I simply can’t do that.
Good luck - you and McCain will need it.
McCain will open the door for the savages...he will do the same as Obama and Hillary. I won’t vote for him...let a Dem take credit for the inevitable screwing up of America.
Actually many RINOs lost in 2006. RINO is an endangered species...Democrats skewer them.
You can tell Mr. McCain that I would not vote for him to save my life.
I do not care who the Democrats put up. I vote for the person who best represents me.
McCain has spent the last 10 years showing me that he has nothing close to my beliefs. If he is the nominee, there won't be anyone representing me.
Becki
Half way there, but a lot of primary season left.
Congrats to John McCain - a solid night.
I hope the animosity dies down a little as the months go on. So much at stake in November........SOOOOO much.
Chalk up another one who won’t vote McCain. The GOP has stuck it in my eye for too long. At least the GOP in Congress will fight an Obama or Hillary. They’ll roll over for McCain, the same way they did for Bush.
To quote a great American who expressed my thoughts on McCain much better than I could come up with:
“John McCain, you treasonous bastard, . . . How dare you even think that you are qualified to sit in the oval office! Ronald Reagan’s office! President? Hah! You miserable excuse for a two-bit political hack, you’re not even qualified to shine Ronald Reagan’s boots. If you do run, I’m afraid you’re gonna be at least one vote short. It’ll be a cold day in hell before a traitor like you ever receives my vote. And that’s a campaign promise you can take to the bank.”
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