[Blue Turtle]

McCain can give all the speeches he wants....the MSM can prop him up as the conservative candidate....but McCain did NOT win any decisive victory tonight. The delegates are split and the base is certainly NOT in favor of him. I wouldn’t want to claim victory under these circumstances.

[whatisthetruth]

McCain talking now- zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

[tcw_laj4ALL]

Isn’t McCain going to thank Mike Huckabee for his victories tonight? I mean, while he’s mentioning everyone else...

[factmart]

Arizona, the state that gave us Goldwater and a big defeat, will once again give us a big defeat.

[Steve_Seattle]

"The delegates are split and the base is certainly NOT in favor of him."

Maybe the base isn't the base anymore. Maybe the base has shifted. Look at the votes. The candidates supported by "the base" - Thompson and Hunter - got so few votes they dropped out early. The problem isn't that "the base" has been screwed by the RNC, the problem is that the "base" candidates generated no larger appeal, and that the three remaining candidates each have major defects that render them weak in a general election: Romney - charisma deficit and Mormonism; McCain - temper, age, and too many liberal positions; Huckabee - narrow base, no grasp of international issues, and pre-disposition for flaky comments.

(Note: In calling Romney's Mormonism a "defect," I am not stating my own position, but the fact that many - we have seen it here tonight - will simply not vote for a Mormon, and that includes secularists and conservative evangelical Christians.)