Sorry mitts 11th hour discovery of conservatism rings hollow...
Posted on 01/29/2008 6:20:11 PM PST by NormsRevenge
MIAMI - Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida Republican primary Tuesday night, edging past former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and seizing precious campaign momentum for next week's string of contests across 21 states.
"It shows one thing: I'm the conservative leader who can unite the party," the Arizona senator said in a brief interview with The Associated Press. "It's a very significant boost, but I think we've got a tough week ahead and a lot of states to come."
The victory was worth 57 national convention delegates for McCain, a winner-take-all's haul and the largest single prize to date in the race.
Rudy Giuliani was in third place, his best showing of the campaign but possibly not good enough to warrant continuing.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee trailed but told supporters he would forge on.
So do I! Cris contrary to the DBM is not that popular to Floridians. He doesn't want oil companies to drill off the coast (200 miles off the coast - Cuba is letting China Petro drill 70 miles off the coast (in Cuba's waters). Crist will be a one term governor! So will Mel Martinez (Kathy Harris should have gotten Mel's seat!)
That's why the Left is going full bore, and also why I cry at the ignorant who piss and moan, saying, "that's it, I'm siting this one out", or "I'm voting for third party" other such nonsense.
Update ,, looks like the last one
—
MIAMI - Sen. John McCain won a breakthrough triumph in the Florida primary Tuesday night, seizing the upper hand in the Republican presidential race ahead of next week’s coast-to-coast contests and lining up a quick endorsement from soon-to-be dropout Rudy Giuliani.
“It shows one thing: I’m the conservative leader who can unite the party,” McCain told The Associated Press after easing past former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for his first-ever triumph in a primary open only to Republicans.
“We have a ways to go, but we’re getting close” to the nomination, he said later in an appearance before cheering supporters.
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was the Democratic winner in a primary held in defiance of national rules that drew no campaigning and awarded no delegates.
The victory was worth 57 Republican National Convention delegates for McCain, a winner-take-all haul that catapulted him ahead of Romney in that category.
Romney, who has spent millions of dollars of his personal fortune to run for the White House, vowed to stay in the race.
“At a time like this, America needs a president in the White House who has actually had a job in the real economy,” the former businessman told supporters in St. Petersburg.
Giuliani, the former New York mayor, ran third. It was his best showing of the campaign, but not nearly good enough for the one-time front-runner who decided to make his last stand in a state that is home to tens of thousands of transplanted New Yorkers. Several officials familiar with events said he intended to endorse McCain on Wednesday in California.
In remarks to supporters in Orlando, Giuliani referred to his candidacy repeatedly in the past tense — as though it were over. “We’ll stay involved and together we’ll make sure that we’ll do everything we can to hand our nation off to the next generation better than it was before,” he said.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee ran fourth in the primary but told supporters he would campaign on. Texas Rep. Ron Paul was fifth, and last.
Florida marked the end of one phase of the campaign, the last in a series of single-state contests that winnowed a once unwieldy field.
The race goes national next week — McCain said it would be the closest thing to a nationwide primary as any event in history. Twenty-one states hold Republican primaries and caucuses on Tuesday with 1,023 convention delegates at stake.
Returns from 81 percent of Florida’s precincts showed McCain, the Arizona senator, with 36 percent of the vote and Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, with 31 percent.
In the overall delegate race, it was McCain 93, Romney 59, Huckabee 40. Paul has four and Giuliani one.
The victory was another step in one of the most remarkable political comebacks of recent times. McCain entered the race the front-runner, then found his campaign out of funds and unraveling last summer as his stands in favor of the Iraq War and a controversial immigration bill proved unpopular.
The war gradually became less of a concern after President Bush’s decision to increase troop deployments began to produce results. McCain also sought to readjust his position on immigration.
By the time of the New Hampshire primary, he had retooled his candidacy and ridden his Straight Talk Express campaign bus to over 100 town hall meetings. He won in New Hampshire, stumbled in Michigan, but won the South Carolina primary last week, taking first place in the state that had snuffed out his presidential hopes in 2000.
McCain’s previous triumphs this year, and in two states in 2000, came in elections open to independents as well as Republicans. He campaigned in Florida with the support of the state’s two top Republican elected officials, Gov. Charlie Crist and Sen. Mel Martinez.
Romney’s only primary win so far was in Michigan, a state where he grew up and claimed a home-field advantage. He also has caucus victories to his credit in Wyoming and Nevada.
A survey of voters as they left their polling places Tuesday showed the economy was the top issue for nearly half. McCain led his rival among those voters, blunting Romney’s weeklong effort to persuade Floridians that his background as a businessman made him best-suited for heading off a recession.
McCain also benefited from the support of self-described moderates, as well as older voters and Hispanics. Giuliani ran second among Latino voters, according to preliminary exit poll data.
Romney was favored by voters opposed to abortion and to easing the path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
About 40 percent of self-described conservatives supported him, as well, compared to about 25 percent for McCain.
The poll was conducted by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International for The Associated Press and the television networks.
The Democratic primary was controversial by its very existence, an act of defiance against national party officials who wanted it held later in the year.
Even so, Clinton sought to emphasize her performance in the state, holding a victory rally as the polls were closing.
She challenged Barack Obama to agree to seat the delegates on the basis of the night’s vote, but he demurred, saying he would abide by an agreement all Democratic candidates had made months ago.
“Those decisions will be made after the nomination, not before,” Obama told reporters Tuesday on a plane from Washington to Kansas. “Obviously, I care a lot about the people in Michigan and a lot about the people in Florida. And I want their votes in the general election. We’ll be actively campaigning for them.”
Same. When McAsswipe gets the nomination, I'm dropping out of the Repub party & going independent. Being a Repub these days is too embarrassing & barely better than the Dems. Yeah I know, that will just get Hitlery, Obama, etc. elected, blah, blah, blah. Whatever. Not much difference between them & McLame and the big spending, liberal-media-pandering Repubs anyway. Repubs = socialist party, Dems = communist party.
Yeah, more of his famous "reaching across the aisle" behavior that the liberal press always fawns over him about. How often do libs "reach across the aisle"? How about - NEVER?
So true...we need to form a CONSERVATIVE PARTY!!
The only hope for what?
To show the REPUBLICAN PARTY that US CONSERVATIVES aren't going to take their mistreatment of us!! Conservatives helped bring the GOP to power in 1994, and what did they do? Nothing... BLOATED THE GOVERNMENT, a 50 million dollar BRIDGE TO NOWHERE and more PORK!
one of these in the Oval Office
Obama is looking to be my choice, and I never voted Dem since 1976 (when I first voted for Reagan in the PRIMARIES, and Ford in the general and got kicked out of POLI-SCI for saying Jimmy Carter would ruin the USA!). I never voted democratic for president, but if it Obama or McCain, I might vote Obama. Sorry, why vote for a democrat light -- when you can vote for the real one?
My guy is huck, that being said I could have gotten behind Thompson, Hunter and Tancredo. And I could hold my nose for McCain (depending on the VP) With that disclaimer out of the way I want to take issues with your post:
“Because McCain is as pro-amnesty as they come and there are hundreds of thousands of illegal alien Cubans in Florida, AND because many of the LEGAL ones want to be able to bring in their loved ones from the Island.”
You are *completely clueless* a cuban *cant* be illegal, the minute they set foot on American soil they are granted legal immigration status. Cubans tend to one of the more reliable group of republican voters in fla so dont crap on them because they dont buy mitts 11th hour conversion to social conservatism.
“In the elderly grouping. That’s because McCain is, as are most elderly in Florida, liberal.” ... “the only way that Romney can beat McCain is by getting some whopper endorsements and going after McCain in NY and CA”
LOL so youll call fla seniors ‘liberals’ but hitch your mans hopes on two of the most liberal states in the union which *will not go to the GOP in November*?
It's Flori-duh.
Manchurian McCain. Something is not right here.....
That is how I will end up, too, no doubt.
You are so right.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961814/posts?page=88#88
Sorry mitts 11th hour discovery of conservatism rings hollow...
Maybe for you, but for many he seems sincere. And for some of the wiser bunch he is the only acceptable choice unless you prefer McCain’s stab-you-in-the back “conservatism” or Hillary’s or Obama’s version.
well I said some nice things about McCain earlier- but I’m not ready for this... Will take some emotional adjustment to deal with this guy as candidate.
Sure, run for office in 2002 as a pro-choice, anti gun candidate, .....
Then in 2004-5 decide to run for the white house next time around and discover you happen to *now* share the views of the natioanl GOP base not the MA base.. Whats to doubt..
“The point that I making is that Bush was a backer of this stinker of a bill too, and I wanted to know if they voted him.”
During 2004 debates with Kerry, Bush lied through his teeth. Kerry admittedly supported amnesty, but Bush said we couldn’t reward illegal behavior with amnesty.
We know what happened since, Bushes lying, Clintonesque game playing with the meaning of the word amnesty.
Yeah, we’ll see how much uniting he does when the RP get 50% of the votes it did in 2004, and we have a lower vote total than we have had in 40 years.
Go for it John, you uniter you.
how the devil does an illegal immigrant vote?????????????????
do they really have VOTES??? this is so depressing.
I want romney to beat mccain because i think he could give either moron (hitler or islamobreath) a run for their money
I’m not giving up hope yet. EVEN if McCain is the nominee, with all of his problems, he could beat the Dems. THAT is why many voted for him, IMO. That said, I’m not sure if a President McCain would bebetter than a President Obama/Hillary. At least with a Dem Pres, the Congress would fight him/her (I’m assuming a Dem would overplay their hand and lose Congress like WJC did). Eek. One good thing. Our nation’s enemies might be scared of a Pres McCain in a way they haven’t beenscared of many Presidents/ half sarc
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