“I am proud to be a conservative,” John McCain declared, acknowledging that he cannot win the presidency without the support of conservatives. McCain spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Thursday as he tried to mend fences with the Republican right, which views him as too liberal on a number of issues. And he was greeted by the conference with surprising enthusiasm, with applause before his speech so lengthy that he had to say “thank you” more than a dozen times. Speaking just hours after Mitt Romney dropped out of the presidential race, McCain acknowledged he had...