Opinion: McCain begins crucial bid to win over GOP conservatives

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In what may well be one of the most important and delicate speeches of his election campaign, Sen. John McCain went before the Conservative Political Action Committee in Washington this afternoon and, admitting he’d made some mistakes, including skipping the group’s convention last year, strongly made the case for his mainstream conservative values.

It was, in effect, the kickoff for the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s crucial bid to woo his party’s suspicious conservative wing to support him in the coming general election because, he said, the Democratic Party’s candidates -- Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama -- and their proposed policies, including a rapid withdrawal from Iraq, pose a serious threat to this nation’s security and future.

‘Often elections in this country are fought within the margins of small differences,’ McCain said in his speech. ‘This one will not be. We are arguing about hugely consequential things.

‘Whomever the Democrats nominate, they would govern this country in....

a way that will, in my opinion, take this country backward to the days when government felt empowered to take from us our freedom to decide for ourselves the course and quality of our lives; to substitute the muddled judgment of large and expanding federal bureaucracies for the common sense and values of the American people; to the timidity and wishful thinking of a time when we averted our eyes from terrible threats to our security that were so plainly gathering strength abroad.’

Addressing CPAC’s concerns on some of his positions, McCain said they agree on many more. and he promised as the party’s nominee, ‘I promise you, I intend to contest these issues on conservative grounds and fight as hard as I can to defend the principles and positions we share.’

Even as McCain spoke, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, as a chief party fundraiser rarely a big fan of McCain’s role in the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill, announced his support for the Arizonan for the party’s nomination. As did Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran, who had supported Romney.

But the event chairman, David Keene, told Bloomberg News: “The mutual distrust and animosity between McCain and conservative leaders is very deep and very real. … He’s not going to solve his problems with one speech. He has to demonstrate over time that he’s somebody that can be trusted.”

And the Club for Growth president Pat Toomey issued a statement crediting McCain for his outreach efforts but warning the senator would have to back up his stands with more than words in coming months and pick an economic conservative as running mate. ‘Clearly,’ he added, ‘an ecomnomic liberal like Mike Huckabee will be unacceptable.’

But McConnell’s endorsement was one of a growing number of recognitions that McCain has, in effect, won the Republican nomination. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, his closest rival, suspended his campaign in a speech at the same conservative meeting this afternoon, saying to prolong it would only prevent McCain from starting a national campaign soon enough. (Suspension vs. quitting allows Romney to maintain control of his delegates until the national convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul this September.)

Next up as a potential campaign quitter, former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas, also scheduled to address CPAC, whose political attraction to conservative evangelicals crippled Romney as any realistic alternative to McCain.

However, after McCain’s speech, Huckabee issued a statement appreciating Romney’s efforts, asking for his supporters’ backing and saying: ‘This is a two-man race for the nomination, and I am committed to marching on. I believe in the importance of a strong national defense -- which includes winning the war against Islamic extremists and the protection of American sovereignty.

‘I am redoubled in my resolve to carry on my campaign in a civil, dignified manner. The issues that got me into this campaign -- protecting life and traditional marriage, enacting the Fair Tax, and border security -- are going to keep me in this campaign.’

Because of his radical differences with fellow Republicans -- namely opposition to the Iraq war -- Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the only other remaining GOP candidate, seems likely to soldier on in his campaign, which drew more donated dollars last quarter than any other Republican.

McCain departed from his prepared speech text to acknowledge Romney as ‘a great governor’ and Huckabee as ‘a great and fine man.’ McCain said he and Romney had agreed in a phone conversation to meet soon.

-- Andrew Malcolm