Politics

No Rest For The Weary

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 22, 2000 / 8:06 AM EST / CBS

John McCain has a pile of laurels, thanks to his primary wins in Michigan and Arizona Tuesday night.

But he can't rest on them.

Mindful that his window for harvesting Democratic and independent voters won't stay open much longer, the Arizona Senator headed to Washington State first thing Wednesday morning.

"We've got a long way to go," McCain admitted as he boarded a plane in Phoenix Wednesday morning after the briefest moment of rest the day before.

He needs to persuade Republican voters, who have voted for Bush in every primary but Arizona, that he could be the answer to their prayers.

"If they want a governing coalition, we've proved in Michigan we can assemble that," he said.

By The Numbers

MICHIGAN:
McCain: 50% (626,244 votes, 52 delegates)
Bush: 43% (535,840 votes, 6 delegates)
Keyes: 5% (65,028 votes, 0 delegates)

ARIZONA:
McCain: 60% (179,610 votes, 30 delegates)
Bush: 36% (106,626 votes, 0 delegates)
Keyes: 4% (10,626 votes, 0 delegates)

Total delegates to date:
McCain: 95
Bush: 57
Keyes: 0

Total delegates needed to
win GOP nomination: 1,034

Washington's primary next Tuesday is open to all comers, and the state has a bit of a maverick streak. If McCain can win there, he might be able to make some headway against the behemoth of California, where only Republican votes will count in choosing the nominee.

That's why Texas Governor George W. Bush is already in the Golden State. He arrived in California Tuesday night, ready to kick off a day of Los Angeles campaigning Wednesday.

"I'm going to be the Republican nominee," Bush said Wednesday morning. "The real question is when I'm the nominee, will I be able to pick those independents up? And I believe I will be."

California could open its Golden Gate for Bush: He has the money to compete there, and if he wins that prize, the disappointments of New Hampshire and Michigan will quickly fade.

Bush talked about the concerted effort of Democrats to vote against him; he believes most of those voters will return to the Democratic fold in the fall. "I'm not doing well among liberal Democrats, but I don't expect to do so," he observed. "I'm pleased with the Republican vote. This is a long process, a marathon. And I'm going to be in it all the way to the end. Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't."

But Wednesday belongs to McCain. In Michigan, with 100 percent of the precincts counted, McCain had 626,244 votes, or 50 percent, and Bush had 535,840 votes, or 43 percent. Alan Keyes had 5 percent.

"Yes, [Michigan] was the firewall," McCain told CBS News Correspondent Phl Jones in a post-primary interview Tuesday night. "I think it was made out of cheesecloth rather than asbestos."