Sen. John McCain appealed for the support of conservatives today as he drives toward the Republican nomination for president, arguing that he is one of them and that past disputes are outweighed by the need to defeat the Democratic nominee in November.
In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, the four-term senator from Arizona confronted disagreements over matters such as immigration head on. But he also stressed that he remains a committed disciple of former president Ronald Reagan, whose legacy he charged would be undone if either Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) or Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) wins the White House.
McCain spoke hours after his leading rival for the GOP nomination, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, dropped out of the race, telling the same gathering that he was suspending his campaign so that McCain could unite the party. McCain holds a commanding lead for the delegates needed to secure the nomination.
McCain told the crowd he had congratulated Romney in a phone call for "running an energetic and dedicated campaign." He said the two have "agreed to sit down together, and we agreed on the importance to unite our party."
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