McCain sticks to message, vows 'respectful' contest
FAIRFIELD, Conn. -- John McCain tailored his remarks this weekend about the presidential race, at times reluctant to think ahead but then sounding like he has clinched the Republican nomination.
"Let's wait until Tuesday," said the superstitious McCain, repeatedly knocking on the wood-veneer table aboard his campaign bus Sunday when he was asked about the Republican nomination.
"I say I'm incredibly nervous and I've seen that movie before," he said to reinforce his point. McCain is the GOP front-runner because he's won the most national delegates and notched consecutive victories in South Carolina and Florida over Mitt Romney, his nearest rival.
He'll beat either Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton or Barack Obama "like a drum," the confident Arizona senator told a rally in suburban Chicago.
Along the way, McCain tried to woo hard-core Republican voters with his message of lowering taxes to boost the economy. He told the crowd at Sacred Heart University here that he would veto any tax increase from Congress.
McCain stuck to his stump speech Sunday by noting that the strategy of temporarily increasing U.S. forces in Iraq is working and urging people to gird themselves for a long global struggle against radical Islamic extremists.
He also has stressed that he would nominate judges in the mold of conservative Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Samuel Alito.
On immigration, he pledged to seal the nation's borders before considering any plan to create "guest worker" programs for illegal immigrants. His immigration stance has been criticized by Romney and conservatives such as Rush Limbaugh.
"We all know we have a lot of work to unify our party and energize our base," McCain told reporters aboard his campaign bus, the Straight Talk Express.
McCain barely mentioned the leading Democratic candidates during his speech in the Sacred Heart gym. He criticized Clinton's support of pork-barrel projects known as earmarks. He is one of the leading congressional critics of earmarks.
McCain was more apt to criticize the Democrats than his Republican primary rivals at stops in Nashville, St. Louis, Birmingham, Ala., and other cities this weekend.
Clinton and Obama both mentioned the Arizona senator in their Sunday-morning TV appearances.
McCain and Clinton were on the air on Fox at the same time. They promised a "respectful" contest over what Clinton called "serious differences about the direction of the country and what we think should be done."
On CBS' Face the Nation, Obama charged that McCain wants to continue President Bush's economic and foreign policies. McCain responded that he's looking forward to a debate in November with either Democrat. "If I can win on Tuesday, and you know I'm superstitious … I think we're going to have very respectful but very sharp differences," he said.
McCain recently secured endorsements from conservatives Jack Kemp, the 1996 Republican vice presidential nominee, and Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn. Former Texas senator Phil Gramm traveled with him Sunday.
After his stop here, McCain took a not-so-subtle poke at his GOP rival by visiting Boston, where Romney once held the job of governor of Massachusetts, and speaking to New England Patriots fans gathered at the Green Dragon Tavern.
The senator covered his Super Bowl bets with planned appearances in Boston and New York City today.
"We think we have a shot here," McCain said in Boston. "We think we may be able to really finish this up on Tuesday."