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With Victory in Wisconsin, McCain Is Talking Like a Nominee

The Washington Post

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Feb. 19 -- A triumphant Sen. John McCain claimed the Republican presidential nomination as his own Tuesday night after easily winning the Wisconsin primary, for the first time acknowledging his success at besting a crowded, fractured field of GOP hopefuls.

McCain slogged through 18 inches of snow in 3-degree Wisconsin weather in the morning. But as the votes were being counted, the senator from Arizona was already celebrating in Ohio his victory over former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. Ohio will join Texas, Vermont and Rhode Island in holding primaries in two weeks.

"With confidence and humility . . . I will be our party's nominee for president of the United States," McCain declared to his supporters, promising to "wage a campaign with determination, passion and the right ideas for strengthening our country."

He immediately turned his fire on Democrats, and particularly Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), dismissing what he said was an "eloquent but empty call for change that promises no more than a holiday from history and a return to the false promises and failed policies of a tired philosophy that trusts in government more than people."

Posted by Editor at February 20, 2008 05:43 AM

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