George W Bush And Mccain Essay Research

George W. Bush And Mccain Essay, Research Paper

Both campaigns running at full steam; Gore, Bradley release fresh TV ads

CLINTON, S.C. – Texas Gov. George W. Bush expressed confidence Friday that he would win South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary while Sen. John McCain declared that a victory for him would show that the Republican “establishment can’t stop us.”

Buoyed by polls showing him ahead, Bush said he was “very optimistic about what’s going to happen (Saturday). I feel great about my chances.”

In Charleston, McCain told a thunderous rally at the College of Charleston that a South Carolina victory for him would mean he would end up the eventual Republican nominee.

“My friends, if we win tomorrow, we will win – there’s no way we can be stopped,” he declared. “We are starting a revolution.”

McCain asked non-Republican voters for their support: “I say to independents, Democrats, libertarians, vegetarians – come on over, vote for me tomorrow.”

South Carolina once looked like a sure win for Bush until McCain won an upset victory in the Feb. 1 New Hampshire primary, a loss that translated into a gradual erosion of Bush’s poll strength in South Carolina.

After an intense week of campaigning and $3.1 million in television and radio ads from the Bush campaign, four polls of South Carolina voters show the Texas governor with a lead ranging from 2 percentage points to 12.

A USA Today/CNN/Gallup

poll taken Wednesday and Thursday showed Bush ahead of McCain by 52 percent to 40 percent.

McCain campaign officials began looking ahead to the Michigan primary on Tuesday, touting the Arizona senator’s strength in the polls there and the endorsements of some state Republican leaders.

Bush says he is not conceding the veterans vote to McCain, a former Navy pilot who spent five years in a Vietnamese POW camp.

‘He can’t hold a candle to Bush’

On Friday, Bush brought Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas, to campaign with him. At a rally at Presbyterian College here, Johnson said he knew McCain both as a POW and a lawmaker in Washington. “He can’t hold a candle to George Bush,” Johnson said.

McCain’s tweaking of the “establishment” refers to the fact that Bush has collected the endorsements of many prominent Republican leaders, including 175 House members, 38 senators and 26 governors. In South Carolina, he has the support of former Gov. Carroll Campbell and veteran Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Campaigning along South Carolina’s seacoast, home to many former Northeast residents, McCain celebrated “the great causes” that still lie ahead for federal government action, including caring for hungry children, senior citizens without shelter or victims of ethnic wars abroad. Americans can still “serve these great causes,” McCain

said.

He touted his success in New Hampshire in getting independents and Democrats to join Republicans to generate the highest voter turnout in state primary history. He reminded voters of his heroic military career, saying he was “fully, totally and completely prepared” to be president.

McCain contended that a Republican capable of drawing non-Republican voters has a better chance of winning in November. Non-Republicans can vote in 16 of the 24 GOP presidential primaries that follow South Carolina, including the first industrial state primary in Michigan on Tuesday.

McCain: GOP an ‘exclusive’ party

McCain said that the Republican party has to broaden its appeal to non-Republicans in the same way that Ronald Reagan did if the GOP hopes to regain the White House after two successive defeats at the hands of Bill Clinton.

“The Republican Party has gone from being an inclusive party to being an exclusive party,” McCain complained “We’ve allowed the special interests to take

it over.”

McCain said the turnout of non-Republicans would decide the outcome in South Carolina. Rep. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a McCain supporter, held out the prospect of an upset, telling the roaring rally in Charleston moments before confetti and streamers showered down upon the audi

ence that McCain was winning the hearts of ordinary people despite Bush’s superior campaign treasury and array of endorsements from South Carolina’s GOP establishment.

“Money cannot buy what he’s got,” Graham said, referring to McCain. “We’re going to rock their world tomorrow.”

McCain picked up the endorsement Friday of former Michigan Gov. William Milliken and former Michigan Supreme Court James Brickley. In a joint statement, the two Republicans said McCain was a “true American hero who is ready to be president.”

Gore avoids a picket

On the Democratic side, Vice President Al Gore straddled a picket line problem Friday, trying to bridge a gap between two major Democratic constituencies gathered on opposite sides of a hotel’s walls.

With striking union workers picketing outside the Grand Hyatt in Washington, D.C., and the National Summit on Africa waiting indoors, Gore was torn. Ahead of him on Monday: a sure showdown over race relations with opponent Bill Bradley when the two debate at the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

Gore avoided crossing the picket line by addressing the summit across a telephone line.

“The hotel workers’ union local 25 is p

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