A confident McCain arrives in New York City

BY KEITH HERBERT | keith.herbert@newsday.com; The Associated Press contribu

February 5, 2008

The Straight Talk Express rolled into Manhattan yesterday, a day before Super Tuesday, carrying Republican primary front-runner John McCain, who campaigned with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani and ex-governor George Pataki.

McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona, was flanked by Giuliani and Pataki, both Republicans, at an afternoon news conference at Grand Central Terminal.

With a horseshoe-shaped bank of television cameras around them, the New York politicians, both of whom were in office on Sept. 11, 2001, said McCain was the best presidential candidate to deal with terrorism.

"America is under siege," said Giuliani, who ended his own campaign for the GOP's nomination last week. "We knew it in New York, maybe better than any where else."

Meanwhile, McCain's Republican opponents had him in their sights yesterday. Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, questioned whether McCain was conservative enough to be the party's nominee.

Campaigning in the Southeast, Romney said McCain's policies and statements on illegal immigration and taxes make him more like Democrats New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

"We're going to hand the liberals in our party a little surprise," Romney said yesterday, predicting he would score an upset in delegate-rich California. McCain leads Romney in the delegate count - 93 to 77. McCain is poised to win a majority of the 1,081 delegates up for grabs at day's end, most analysts said. A total of 1,191 is needed to win the nomination.

Unwilling to leave anything to chance, both McCain and Romney hastily rearranged their schedules to make one more late stop in California, the largest state, with 170 delegates.

Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, was in Tennessee, where he said that Wal-Mart Republicans knew long before Wall Street that the economy was headed for trouble.

"They were paying more for their fuel and more for their health care and their kids' education, but their paychecks weren't going up enough to cover all those things that were costing more," he said.

But McCain sounded like victory was in his grasp yesterday as he campaigned in three states, starting with a rally at Faneuil Hall in Boston, Mass., and a second stop at a firehouse in Hamilton, N.J., before arriving in midtown Manhattan.

At each stop, he touted his ability to draw votes from Democrats and independent voters, something he'll need if he wants to win in New York and New Jersey in the general election, both rich with Democratic voters.

"I will compete and win New York State in November," McCain said, his supporters breaking into applause in Manhattan.

If one of the other GOP candidates wins the nomination, "you won't even see a presidential commercial," Giuliani said.

During his earlier stops, McCain tackled the charges that he wasn't conservative enough.

"I am confident I can unite this party," McCain said. "Look at the state of Florida, which was a Republican-only primary, you look at South Carolina, and New Hampshire, a majority of Republicans supported me."

McCain thanked ex-governor Pataki for his support, saying that Pataki joined sitting governors in Florida, Texas and California in supporting his campaign.

"These are challenging times, times that demand experienced, principled leadership," Pataki said. "That leader is John McCain."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.