John McCain Wins Enough Delegates For Republican Nomination
While the Democrats showed division, the Republicans began the process of regrouping and consolidation. Republican voters voted overwhelmingly in all four primary states for John McCain, but it was the voters in Texas that pushed McCain over the 1191 delegates needed to secure the nomination from his party.
McCain will meet with president Bush at the White House on Wednesday, March 5. The president will formally announce his official endorsement of Senator McCain for president, something he could not do until there was a clear winner in the contest.
And McCain became the clear winner when former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee conceded the primary race to Senator McCain and endorsed him for president.
David Gergen, who worked for several presidents and is a political analyst for CNN, stated that John McCain will want to distance himself as much as he can from the sitting president, since the Democrats are going to draw parallels. Gergen also suggested that McCain go to Iraq and formulate a plan for Iraq to show that he is not continuing a failed mission leftover by a failed administration. Iraq has become McCain's defining issue due to his continued insistence on American involvement there (100 years he has said). His promotion and support of a troop "surge" in Iraq has also met with success and could be used to his political advantage.
But keeping a studied distance from the political leader of his party is definitely in John McCain's best interest. The Democrats adamantly accuse the Arizona senator's policies as being carbon copies of those of the Bush administration: the failed War in Iraq, the failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation, continue tax cuts (which only help the affluent), etc.
It's a long campaign trail that leads to November, though, and the Democrats, no matter how divided they are at the moment, will be united to a certain degree by the first of September. In the meantime, Senator John McCain will not only have to dodge all the Bush comparisons but the rekindling of interest in the Savings and Loan scandal he was associated with two decades ago.
McCain will meet with president Bush at the White House on Wednesday, March 5. The president will formally announce his official endorsement of Senator McCain for president, something he could not do until there was a clear winner in the contest.
And McCain became the clear winner when former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee conceded the primary race to Senator McCain and endorsed him for president.
David Gergen, who worked for several presidents and is a political analyst for CNN, stated that John McCain will want to distance himself as much as he can from the sitting president, since the Democrats are going to draw parallels. Gergen also suggested that McCain go to Iraq and formulate a plan for Iraq to show that he is not continuing a failed mission leftover by a failed administration. Iraq has become McCain's defining issue due to his continued insistence on American involvement there (100 years he has said). His promotion and support of a troop "surge" in Iraq has also met with success and could be used to his political advantage.
But keeping a studied distance from the political leader of his party is definitely in John McCain's best interest. The Democrats adamantly accuse the Arizona senator's policies as being carbon copies of those of the Bush administration: the failed War in Iraq, the failed Comprehensive Immigration Reform legislation, continue tax cuts (which only help the affluent), etc.
It's a long campaign trail that leads to November, though, and the Democrats, no matter how divided they are at the moment, will be united to a certain degree by the first of September. In the meantime, Senator John McCain will not only have to dodge all the Bush comparisons but the rekindling of interest in the Savings and Loan scandal he was associated with two decades ago.
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