Mitt Spending Big in Super Tuesday States

GOP rivals battle over right-wing credentials

(NEWSER) - GOP contenders John McCain and Mitt Romney have both staked out claims on the conservative heart of the Republican party, hoping to convince voters heading to the polls today that they're the genuine article. Romney insists conservatives up and down the country have told him: "We don't want Senator McCain. We want a conservative in the White House." McCain, meanwhile, slammed Romney's Massachusetts record and said his own hard-line positions on Islamic extremism and for limiting federal spending are truly conservative. More»

Former Mass. governor fared poorly on Super Tuesday

(NEWSER) - In the wake of his poor Super Tuesday showing, Mitt Romney ended his presidential campaign this afternoon, CNN reports. In a rousing address at a conservative conference today, the former Massachusetts governor said, “If this were only about me, I’d go on”—but that his presence in the race was preventing a Republican nominee from taking his candidacy national. More»

Huck and Mitt hope delicate party dynamics will topple McCain

(NEWSER) - John McCain's strong Super Tuesday showing has left him looking like a sure thing to win the Republican nomination, but Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney are staying in the race and hoping for a change, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Once you're out of the race, you're out. But if you stay in, you have a chance to put something together," a Republican noted. More»

Scribes talk McCain's conservative problem, the Romney slight, and Huckabee as VP

(NEWSER) - With the big day behind us, four writers look to where Super Tuesday results leave the GOP:

• John McCain “had an impressive night,” says Jim Hood in National Review, but still lost in many states among Republicans—and had terrible conservatives stats. He’s no good for November unless he can “motivate disgruntled and distrustful Republican activists.”

Solidifies frontrunner status, shows weakness with the party's right

(NEWSER) - With twice as many delegates as Huckabee and Romney combined, John McCain emerged last night as the unquestioned leader in the GOP race. “Tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican party frontrunner," he told supporters gleefully. But his losses to Huckabee and Romney in the South and the Bible Belt, along with exit poll results, exposed real weakness with the party's base, Time reports More»