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Thursday: John McCain gestures while giving a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington after rival Mitt Romney dropped out of the race. (AP Photo)

John McCain immediately began locking down the support of his party’s conservative base Thursday after Mitt Romney dropped out of the Republican presidential primary race with an entreaty to conservatives to let bygones be bygones and to help McCain defeat the Democratic nominee in November.

With a gaping lead in the delegate count, McCain is unquestionably the leader for the GOP nomination but is eager to mute the scathing criticism he’s faced from the far right wing of the party for being too moderate, and convince staunch conservatives to not just resign themselves to his nomination, but embrace it.

In an early and promising sign of McCain’s ability to do so, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who has in the past gone head-to-head with McCain over campaign finance reform, joined a chorus of other Senate members Thursday in saying he would support the Arizona senator.

“I think the Republican nomination is essentially over. I think there’s widespread pride among Republican conference members that one of our members is going to be the nominee for president of the United States,” McConnell said of McCain. “He’s certainly going to be our nominee. And I’m happy to support him. What he’s achieved is a remarkable accomplishment.”

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, who clashed with McCain over immigration reform, also endorsed him ahead of his state’s primary in early March as did former Romney supporter Sen. Thad Cochran, who just recently told reporters, “The thought of (McCain) being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He is erratic. He is hotheaded. He loses his temper, and he worries me.”

On his way to a vote, the Mississippi senator said he’s now on board: “Oh yes, I support John now.”

Romney formally suspended his campaign before a stunned audience at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington early Thursday afternoon, saying he didn’t want to hurt the party by continuing his uphill battle and dragging it out to the convention in September.

McCain’s first test following Romney’s decision was to address the same audience a few hours later — and he got a mostly cordial reception as he assured the audience of his conservative beliefs, on fiscal responsibility, national security, abortion and other issues.

He also asked for their “pardon” for skipping the conference last year, and said, “I am acutely aware that I cannot succeed in (the race for president), nor can our party prevail over the challenge we will face from either Senator Clinton or Senator Obama, without the support of dedicated conservatives.”

FOX News contributor Michael Steele, former lieutenant governor of Maryland, said after the speech that McCain had to “eat a little humble pie,” but succeeded in showing conservatives that he is one of them.

“He began, I think, to link conservatives to his vision and his cause … and help them understand how his conservatism and theirs kind of meld together,” Steele said. “I think that he really did a great job today of kind of sealing that for the GOP.”

One of the few moments of backlash at CPAC, however, came when he discussed illegal immigration, a sign that his work to forge a comprehensive immigration plan with Democrats is still considered amnesty by many conservatives. McCain said he pursued that legislation knowing it would “imperil” his campaign, but that border security is among his highest priorities. The audience applauded that.

McCain has been blasted for his position on illegal immigration, global warming, campaign finance and tax cuts by several prominent right-wing figureheads and pundits, including Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson.

In a snub to McCain, radio show host Laura Ingraham called Romney the only conservative running for president at CPAC.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay told FOX News McCain still has a lot of work to do with conservatives, and that he only got some positive reception Thursday because the audience was “salted” with his supporters.

“The room was not overwhelmingly warm to him,” he said from the event site. “We’ll see if McCain really wants to build a relationship with the conservative movement. … It’s really incumbent on the next nominee, if it is McCain, to reach out to conservatives. He cannot rely just on some Democrats and independents … he has got to have a base.”

But Nation editor and FOX News contributor David Corn said of the audience reception: “If he can do this with one speech, it shows … that the conservative ideologues are real pushovers.”

Meanwhile, Mike Huckabee is pledging to stay in the race, despite trailing McCain in the delegate count by a numerical canyon, 707-195.

“I still believe that this thing is a long way from being settled and now that the field is down to two, our chances have substantially improved,” the former Arkansas governor said in New York, claiming he could unite conservatives.

Romney had 294 when he dropped his bid, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul has 14. A candidate needs only to reach 1,191 to clinch the nomination, and McCain is just a few hundred away.

Even Hillary Clinton said McCain is the presumed Democratic rival.

“It appears as though Senator McCain will be the Republican nominee, and I have the greatest respect for my friend and colleague Senator McCain,” she said in Virginia. “But I believe he offers more of the same. More of the same economic policies. More of the same military policies in Iraq.”

McCain stressed to CPAC Thursday that he would not allow defeat in Iraq, blasting Democrats for calls to withdraw prematurely. National security was the principal issue Romney cited when discussing the common ground he shares with McCain.

“Senator Clinton and Senator Obama will withdraw our forces from Iraq based on an arbitrary timetable designed for the sake of political expediency, and which recklessly ignores the profound human calamity and dire threats to our security that would ensue,” McCain said, asking the audience to look past their disagreements with him.

“You have heard me say before that for all my reputation as a maverick, I have only found true happiness in serving a cause greater than my self-interest. For me, that cause has always been our country, and the ideals that have made us great,” he concluded.

FOX News Serafin Gomez and Trish Turner and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 at 6:24 pm and is filed under John McCain, Mitt Romney, Top Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.