John McCain Passes Halfway Mark in Republican Presidential Delegate Race 
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by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 6, 2008
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — Now that more delegate vote totals have been tabulated following the nearly two dozen primary and caucus votes on Super Tuesday, John McCain has passed the halfway mark. With more than a two-to-one lead over his top opponents Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, McCain sought to rally the GOP together behind his candidacy.
"These primaries are tough — everyone understands that," McCain said. "But as soon as I’m the nominee, we’ll join the party all together and we’ll move forward toward November."
McCain now has 707 of the 1,191 delegates needed to win the Republican Primary at the national convention this August, according to figures from AP. That’s nearly 60 percent of the necessary total.
Romney has 294 delegates after Super Tuesday and Huckabee has 195, though both candidates have pledged to stay in the race.
Other media outlets have different figures, but all of them show McCain with a strong lead and more than half of the delegates needed to win the nomination.
CNN shows McCain with 680 delegates to 270 for Romney and 176 for Huckabee while the political web site Real Clear Politics has the breakdown at 697 for McCain, 244 for Romney and 187 for Huckabee.
On Tuesday night, McCain told supporters, "I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner for the nomination."
He continued to press the theme that he’s the likely Republican nominee on Wednesday.
"I think we have to wrap this up as quickly as possible,” McCain said, according to a Bloomberg News report.
But Huckabee, who says he won’t pull out until someone crosses the threshold for the nomination, told Bloomberg Television he won the states that show he’s the conservative candidate in the race.
"These are states you have to win as a Republican in order to win the presidency,” he said. "Where I’m winning is where Republicans have to win if we’re going to capture the White House.”
"I’m staying in the race because I still want to be president. And until somebody gets 1,191 delegates, we don’t have a nominee," Huckabee told Fox News’ "Fox & Friends" today.
Romney also told supporters on Tuesday night that he plans to stay in the race until the end.
"One thing that’s clear is this campaign’s going on," said Romney.
However, he planned to meet with top aides today to determine his future.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton came away with about 41 percent of the delegates needed to win the nomination while Barack Obama has 36 percent. Both candidates are strongly pro-abortion.
CNN shows Clinton at 823 total delegates and Obama with 741 while RCP has Clinton at 1012 and Obama at 933.
