John Mccain

After an exhausting months-long sprint, John McCain hoped for a decisive night on Super Tuesday where he could claim he had the Republican nomination sewn up. But it wasn't to be. The Arizona senator instead claimed an incremental victory -- and said he was ready to claim the title of Republican front-runner. "I don't really mind it one bit," he told the crowd of more than 500 in the ballroom of the Arizona Biltmore Resort.

John McCain, fresh from piling up a commanding lead over his two main Republican presidential rivals in this week's cross-country primaries and caucuses, now faces the daunting task of closing the rifts within the GOP while trying to defeat his more conservative rivals.

Television ads promoting movies are not the normal business of politics or the courts, but they are this month because conservative activists are seeking a wide audience for "Hillary: The Movie." David N. Bossie, who made a name for himself as a relentless investigator of the Clintons during the 1990s, has released a 90-minute documentary on the New York senator.

With John McCain racking up delegates on a steady march toward the Republican presidential nomination, deeply conservative voters are at a loss. They don't like McCain. They've tried, and failed, to stop him. So it was with growing frustration, and an unaccustomed sense of impotence, that many conservatives surveyed the electoral map Wednesday. "We're in a political dilemma, as well as a personal dilemma," said Jessica Echard, executive director of the conservative advocacy group Eagle Forum.

NEW YORK -- Mary Matalin, conservative pundit and adviser to former presidential candidate Fred Thompson, has attacked Sen. John McCain for his stances on taxes and immigration and for the "madness" of jumping on "the pseudo-religious global-warming bandwagon." Matalin is also head of the conservative Threshold Editions, an imprint of Simon & Schuster.

John McCain effectively clinched the Republican nomination for president Thursday when Mitt Romney abandoned his candidacy, leaving Mike Huckabee as a final but minor obstacle to a resolution of the yearlong race. Romney's exit came in an emotionally charged speech to a boisterous gathering of conservatives whose hostility toward McCain underscored the challenge that he still faces in uniting Republicans often irked by his rebel streak.

This week John McCain racked up key victories, and now it appears inevitable he will win the Republican Party's presidential nomination. But last summer many pundits were doubtful. Here are some assessments from then: * "McCain is as relevant as Britney Spears. No one takes him seriously anymore," said Rick Shafton, a New Jersey Republican pollster, in the Washington Times.

President Bush offered no explicit endorsement Friday of John McCain, the likely GOP presidential nominee, but he began to prepare the battlefield for the eventual nominee, calling on conservatives to put the primary campaign's feuds behind them.

After seeking it so long, John McCain can now see the Republican presidential nomination almost within reach. He knows the need to reconcile with those conservatives who have so long sought to deny him the party's prize. But even such an obviously sensible strategy has its limits. Chatting with reporters as his campaign plane flew from St. Louis to Chicago, McCain was asked about radio host Rush Limbaugh's frequent jabs at him.

President Bush pledged Sunday to assist Sen. John McCain's campaign for the presidency assuming he wins the Republican Party nomination -- but acknowledged that the Arizona senator has "got some convincing to do" among the party's conservatives. In an interview with "Fox News Sunday" at his retreat at Camp David, Md., Bush was careful to note that two Republicans are still competing for the nomination, and he did not express a preference.