February 6, 2008 -- John McCain took a giant step toward securing the GOP nomination last night - carrying California, sweeping primaries in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, and romping in the heartland, taking Illinois and Missouri.
McCain also snagged Oklahoma and his home state of Arizona.
"We must get used to the idea that we
are the Republican front-runner for the nomination of president of the United
States," McCain told cheering supporters at his Arizona
headquarters.
McCain said he showed broad supporting by winning nine states in all parts of the country, including the biggest prizes - California and New York - and the bellwether state of Missouri. Six of the nine states were winner-take-all, meaning he got all the delegates and his rivals got nothing.
McCain collected more than 400 delegates last night to 106 for Mitt Romney and 93 for Mike Huckabee.
Early on, his biggest obstacle on Super Tuesday appeared to be Huckabee rather than Romney.
Huckabee won his home state of Arkansas, but also picked up states in the South: Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee and West Virginia. McCain narrowly beat back Huckabee in Missouri.
Romney, a Mormon, won his home state of Massachusetts. He also carried the heavily Mormon state of Utah, and Minnesota, Colorado, Montana and North Dakaota.
But McCain's sweep of the Atlantic states and California gives him momentum and what could amount to be an insurmountable lead in delegates.
The rules of the game favor McCain.
With his crucial winner-take-all wins in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Delaware, the former Vietnam POW got 201 delegates.
He has more than 500 delegates when facto
ring in prior victories in Florida, South Carolina and New Hampshire - more than double his opponents.
A total of 1,191 delegates is needed to secure the Republican nomination.
McCain has former Mayor Rudy Giuliani to thank for steering these delegates to him.
Aides to Giuliani, who dropped out of the race and backed McCain last week, had persuaded GOP leaders in the Northeast to change the election from distributing delegates based on proportional voting to winner-take-all to help "America's Mayor."
McCain won New York with a whopping 51 percent of the vote to 28 percent for Romney.
"McCain is going to be tough to stop,"
said Republican consultant Scott Reed. "He comes out with a huge lead in
delegates and momentum . . That will allow him to raise a boatload of
money."
Added University of Virginia analyst Larry Sabato: "It's going to be exceedingly difficult for Romney to win now - even if he wins California. The numbers aren't quite there for him."
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