McCain makes it official

What happened

Capping a highly improbable comeback, Sen. John McCain of Arizona officially secured the Republican nomination this week, after a sweep of four primaries pushed his delegate count above the 1,191 needed to clinch a win. McCain’s last remaining GOP rival, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, dropped out of the race after losing badly in the contests in Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, and Vermont. “Now we begin the most important part,” said McCain, “to make a respectful, determined, and convincing case that our campaign and my election as president, given the alternatives presented by our friends in the other party, are in the best interests of the country we love.”

McCain’s campaign survived a near-death experience last summer, practically running out of money and staff. Then, appealing to moderates and independents, he overcame fierce opposition from the party’s religious and social conservatives, who sustained Huckabee’s campaign long after it had any chance of prevailing. The day after his latest primary wins, McCain met at the White House with President Bush, who officially endorsed him. Bitter rivals during the 2000 presidential campaign, Bush and McCain promised to work together to heal GOP divisions and keep the White House in Republican hands. “John showed incredible courage, strength of character, and perseverance in order to get to this moment,” Bush said, “and that’s exactly what we need in a president.”

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What the editorials said

McCain richly deserves the nomination, said the New York Daily News. “By far the strongest candidate in the GOP field,” he immediately began to draw “sharp contrasts” between his positions and those of his two potential Democratic rivals. On Iraq, McCain said the U.S. “must see the conflict through to victory.” He also vowed to fight Democrats on any plan for a government takeover of health care. Stay tuned, because “it should be one hell of a fight.”

But it will be an uphill climb for McCain, said USA Today. He remains tethered to a highly unpopular president “who took the nation into a war that won’t end and who now presides over an economy that is flirting with recession.” At a time when the nation is hungering for change, McCain, 71, will have a difficult time making the case that he is the one to bring it.

What the columnists said

The 2008 race offers McCain an opportunity to “rebrand the Republican Party,” said Stuart Rothenberg in Roll Call. Having faced down his party’s more extreme elements, and with his reputation for integrity, McCain could erase the stains inflicted by Bush missteps and GOP corruption scandals. In fact, despite Bush’s low approval ratings and polls showing that the public wants a new direction, McCain is running neck-and-neck with—or even ahead of—Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama in hypothetical matchups. You can’t yet call him the front-runner, but a McCain win in November “is not out of the question.”

It is, unless he can better define what victory in Iraq will look like, said Jed Babbin in The Washington Times. After five years of war, most Americans now just want to leave, despite the surge’s success and the continued threat of Islamic fanaticism. McCain needs to present voters with a convincing alternative to withdrawal, by spelling out a “post-surge policy to win the war.” If he can’t, Democrats will batter him all the way to November with his ill-advised comment that America could remain in Iraq for another “100 years.”

The economy may wind up being McCain’s toughest opponent, said John J. Pitney Jr. in National Review Online. If national security takes center stage in a campaign against Obama or Clinton, McCain will be sitting pretty. But historically, the party in charge when the economy falters is punished at the polls. If the nation slips into a full-blown recession, McCain will likely “pay a steep political price for a downturn.”

What next?

With the nomination in hand, McCain faces the tasks of choosing a running mate, mending fences with conservatives, and raising money for the general election. The money may prove his toughest challenge. He raised $12 million in January, while Obama raised $36 million. Clinton raised $30 million in February. That disadvantage “is likely to persist through the year,” said Laura Meckler in The Wall Street Journal. But having been chronically short of funds throughout the primaries, McCain knows how to run a shoestring campaign. “We just proved you don’t need as much” money as the opposition, said McCain strategist Mark McKinnon.