The Note: Mitt-ster's Congeniality

Feb. 8, 2008 -- And so Mitt Romney pulls a Ted Williams -- he hits a home run in his last at bat (and just maybe has himself frozen for political revival at a later date).

It meant that Sen. John McCain's eagerly awaited kiss-and-make-up speech to a gathering of conservative political activists in Washington turned into a shotgun wedding. McCain, R-Ariz., got no flowers, but the marriage was consummated when he was able to utter the word "immigration" and then watch the cheers (mostly) subsume the boos.

What does he get for a wedding present? The sweet vindication of one of the more remarkable comebacks of this or any political time, yes. Oh yeah -- also a dispirited and disgruntled party base that is hardly inclined to embrace (to borrow Romney's old words) the author of McCain-Feingold, McCain-Kennedy, and McCain-Lieberman.

"In a moment that will long be remembered by Republicans, he was greeted with jeers as well as cheers," Elisabeth Bumiller and David Kirkpatrick write in The New York Times. "Many at the gathering responded to Mr. McCain's speech with a mixture of resistance and resignation, indicating the magnitude of the challenge he will face if he hopes to match the palpable energy of the Democrats. As soon as Mr. Romney announced that he was ending his campaign, a few activists appeared in the hotel lobby with handmade cardboard signs saying, 'Republicans Against McCain.' "

Looking past Mike Huckabee -- and on to Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- is the right play, and McCain's well-earned luxury. Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter can host Clinton fundraisers, James Dobson and Paul Weyrich can go pout, and Huckabee has every right to go on (though the countdown starts after Virginia votes, on Tuesday), but John McCain is going to be the Republican presidential nominee.

President Bush on Friday issued a just-about endorsement of McCain (though without mentioning his name), applying the magical C-word: "Soon we will have a nominee who will carry the conservative banner into this election and beyond," Bush said Friday morning CPAC, in a sentence that ABC's Ann Compton reports was met with dead silence.

In case the Bushies needed more prodding/convincing/cajoling, Ken Mehlman issued his endorsement Thursday night -- "it is now time for Republicans across the country to unite" -- and Karl Rove maxed out with a $2,300 online donation to McCain, a McCain aide tells The Note. (Remember those awkward embraces from 2004? One loyal soldier is getting what he's due.)

"The senator from Arizona immediately turned his attention to repairing relations with disgruntled conservatives and to opening the general election campaign with a sharp critique of his Democratic rivals," Dan Balz writes in The Washington Post.

"But the reception McCain received yesterday at the annual conservative conference, where he was booed loudly when introduced, pointed to the fractured coalition that he must reunite before what is expected to be a challenging fall campaign."

Said McCain, at the Conservative Political Action Committee meeting: "We have had a few disagreements, and none of us will pretend that we won't continue to have a few. But even in disagreement, especially in disagreement, I will seek the counsel of my fellow conservatives."

ABC's Ron Claiborne: "He laid claim to an overall conservative record, but he tried to do so without apologizing for the times he strayed from conservative orthodoxy."

Nothing gets a party going like having its best shot at winning, and McCain has spent a career performing post-primary positioning. But his work with the base is far from done: "It is Mr. McCain's Senate record on core conservative issues that will continue to rile conservatives, regardless of his words now," Elizabeth Holmes, Alex Frangos, and Jackie Calmes write in The Wall Street Journal.

McCain has it locked up in time for it to influence the Democratic primary, which is set to rage in the middle of the field while McCain performs a few victory laps. It means independents can go vote Democrat in open primaries (more likely to help Obama?) and that Democrats can start thinking strategically about the matchup they want.

It also means that the Democratic candidates can start trying out their lines of attack a bit early. Clinton, D-N.Y., quickly picked up a Romney line: "As Senator McCain has said, he doesn't really know much about the economy," she told ABC's Jake Tapper. "It's not been an issue of his concern in the past."

"As Virginia Democrats choose between Clinton and Obama on Tuesday, their decision could hinge in part on whom they see as the candidate most able to beat front-runner McCain in November," Bill Turque and Katherine Shaver write in The Washington Post.

Said Clinton (sounding almost like Obama talking about herself): "I believe he offers more of the same."

"Who would be the best Democrat to stand next to John McCain and debate national security?" Clinton said in Richmond.

All signs indicate that Clinton's finances are back on track. But could it be (and perish the thought) that the alarm bells about her red ink were triggered inside the building? Was it all just spin, a savvy maneuver designed to cast Clinton as the underdog? (If so -- hook, line, and sinker.)

ABC's Kate Snow reports that high-level aides never stopped receiving pay: "It's not happening," a source tells Snow. "One longtime Democratic consultant not affiliated with any campaign wondered if perhaps the whole thing wasn't a big stunt to garner media attention and look like an 'underdog.' "

The narrative of Clinton's financial difficulties was pamphlet-sized -- astoundingly brief in the era of endless news cycles: "Concerned that it could lose several primaries and caucuses through the rest of February, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign sought to create an alternate storyline of success on Thursday by announcing that Mrs. Clinton had raised $7.5 million online so far this month," Patrick Healy and Jeff Zeleny write in The New York Times.