From The Road
December 17, 2007 6:08 PM

McCain's Endorsement-fest

By
Andante Higgins
Topics
John McCain
(CBS)
From CBS News' Dante Higgins:

CONCORD, NH -- McCain was riding high today as he has made his way back onto the presidential race's radar screen after a string of high-profile endorsements.

This morning he was endorsed by his favorite former Democrat, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), which comes on the heels of back to back-to-back endorsements from 3 newspapers over the weekend: The Des Moines Register, The Boston Globe and The Portsmouth Herald.

The McCain campaign is on a bus tour through New Hampshire this week, straight from a run through South Carolina over the weekend.

McCain said the Des Moines Register endorsement caught him by surprise and that he was grateful, but added he had no plans to make adjustments to his Iowa campaigning schedule or budget, which have been thin in recent months.

At today's endorsement announcement in Hillsborough, N.H., Lieberman outlined his reasons for crossing party lines to endorse McCain for president, citing McCain's ability to be bipartisan and his experience and judgment for America's national security needs.

"I know that it is unusual for someone who is not a Republican to endorse a Republican candidate for President," said Lieberman.

"No one should let party lines be a barrier to choosing the person we believe is best qualified to lead our nation forward. The problems that confront us are too great, the threats we face too real, and the opportunities we have too exciting for us to play partisan politics with the presidency."

"We desperately need our next President to break through the reflexive partisanship that is poisoning our politics and stopping us from getting things done"

McCain told reporters this endorsement proves he can reach across the aisle in Washington and work with Democrats to get things done.

McCain and Lieberman are good friends and on the trail, McCain often refers to him as his favorite Democrat when he discusses their travels to Iraq together (Their most recent trip there was over Thanksgiving).

The McCain camp is elated to say the least.

"You should have listened to me from the beginning," McCain told CBS News yesterday. "We're working hard and we have a lot of work to do, but ... we're back!"

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