John McCain is opening his lead in the polls, and cementing the impression that he may well emerge from Super Tuesday as the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee. Which makes life especially challenging at the moment for McCain’s principal rival, Mitt Romney. As he heads into the final stretch before some 22 states make their preferences known, Romney’s aides say the former Massachusetts governor is benefiting from a tide of anti-McCain Republicans coming his way-and making inroads with backers of Mike Huckabee, who are suddenly panicking at the idea of a McCain presidency.
That message was very much in evidence, as Romney scampered across the delegate map. He woke up Monday morning in Tennessee and flew to Atlanta; plans call for him to then board a plane for Long Beach, California, where he’s scheduled to attend a rally before flying back to West Virginia overnight. He’ll stump in Charleston Tuesday morning, before Romney and the weary press corps traveling with him make their way to Boston, watching the returns in his hometown.
In Atlanta, Romney spoke to a pumped-up crowd of some 500 supporters, pushing every conservative button he could. He chastised McCain for voting against the Bush tax cuts, blasted him for backing the McCain-Kennedy “amnesty” bill for immigrants, and charged that the Arizona senator favored a 50 percent charge on gasoline. The crowd booed loudly. By his side was a fresh recruit to the Romney cause: ultra-conservative Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. In his honor, Romney added a new chapter to the stump speech: whacking McCain for opposing an amendment defining “marriage as a relationship between a man and a woman.” Santorum, who voted against expanding hate crimes to include sexual orientation, was one of the staunchest pro-life forces in the Senate for years (he got a 0 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America).
Santorum may prove an asset on the stump, fueling conservatives’ doubts about McCain. “If you want a conservative as the nominee of this party you must vote for Mitt Romney because Mitt Romney is the only person in this race that can stop John McCain and the elite in the party who don’t as much care about those issues that a lot of folks here in Georgia care about,” Santorum said today. “The only alternative to stop the McCain Twisted Talk Express is Mitt Romney.”
Romney is also hoping that his pitch to voters as a management-minded Mr. Fix-It on the economy will contrast well with McCain, who has acknowledged he’s stronger on military and foreign affairs. “If we stay on the current course we’re on, America will become a second tier power sometime during this century,” Romney said at the end of his press conference in Atlanta. “The long term trajectory is of great concern and unless we change that long-term trajectory we could become the France or Great Britain of the 21st century. Still great nations, but not the most powerful nation on earth. Right now the world needs America’s strength.” And right now, Romney needs every conservative within earshot to heed his call.
