Bush And Mccain Essay, Research Paper

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McCain?s 44.

Alan Keyes garnered just 3 percent.

Exit polls show that ? as in this year?s

earlier GOP contests ? Bush continues

to outperform McCain among Republican voters. While

McCain rode to an upset win in Michigan last week on a

surge of support from Democratic and independent

voters, Virginia?s requirement that voters sign a pledge of

loyalty to the GOP kept Democrats away from this open

primary.

?The voters of Virginia rejected the politics of pitting

one religion against another,? Bush said in a swipe at

McCain. ?This campaign is winning and we?re doing it the

right way. We are uniting our party without abandoning

our principles. We are expanding our base without

destroying our foundations.?

McCain called Bush and congratulated him on his

victory, but said Bush?s strategy seems dependent on

southern states and predicted it will have no impact on the

upcoming coast-to-coast battles a week from tonight on

Super Tuesday.

Looking Forward

But there was troubling news for McCain?s national

campaign in the Virginia exit polls, which show him being

trounced 71 percent to 25 percent by Bush among

Republicans ? who made up nearly two-thirds of the

electorate.

Realizing his need to make inroads with Republicans,

McCain has been playing up his conservative credentials.

But his poor showing in Virginia does not bode well for

California?s critically important primary next Tuesday. A

new poll shows McCain trailing Bush by 20 points among

Republicans in the Golden State.

Winning Virginia will deliver Bush all 56 of the state?s

delegates to the presidential nominating convention this

summer. Turnout is up from the 1996 GOP Senate

primary, the most recent turnout measure available since

the last Virginia presidential primary was held in 1988.

Bush also picked up delegates tonight with a win in the

North Dakota caucuses. Polls remain open in Washington

state until 11 p.m. ET. The Democratic candidates ? Al

Gore and Bill Bradley ? also square off today in a

primary ?beauty contest? in Washington state.

Bush was well-positioned to win in Virginia and

anything less than a solid victory would have been seen as

a loss after his defeat in Michigan. The solid showing also

was a victory for Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who

spearheaded the Bush effort in the state. Bush

campaigned vigorously in Virginia while McCain, who

initially intended to skip the contest altogether, mounted

only a last-minute effort. The Bush campaign, which

acknowledges spending about $1.9 million on advertising

in Virginia, estimates that McCain spent about about $1

million.

But the McCain campaign never had high hopes for

Virginia and may have been using the state as a foil to

show off his willingness to take tough stands as he goes

into more moderate states like California, Ohio and New

York next week.

The Arizona senator took a number of positions that

were unpopular with Virginians, calling for higher cigarette

taxes and an increase in the number of flights into Reagan

National Airport in Northern Virginia. Finally, McCain

lashed out at leaders of the religious right movement,

calling them ?agents of intolerance? as he slammed Bush

for ?pandering to the outer reaches of American politics.?

Many Christian conservative organizations are

headquartered in Virginia and worked hard to rally

support for Bush. In turn, McCain?s support among

religious right voters was down to just one in 10 voters. In

Michigan and South Carolina, McCain was supported by

about a quarter of those voters. A