Super Tuesday contenders' profiles

Special Report: U.S. presidential election 2008

Backgrounder: Super Tuesday in 2008, biggest in history

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    WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Arizona Senator John McCain fulfilled his miracle reverse from an "underdog" to the Republican presidential forerunner as he prevailed in the Super Tuesday states, beginning to end the party's nominee race.

    As of all winners being projected of the 21 states holding Republican primaries and caucuses, McCain led in nine states and won about 40 percent of the populous votes, compared to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's seven states, 31 percent, and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee's five states, 21 percent.

    The number of delegates McCain has gained increased from 97 to almost 600 after the Super Tuesday triumph, more than the combination of Romney's 250 and Huckabee's 160, leaving the two rivals hardly to catch up.

    The 70-year-old Senator launched his second bid for the White House with limited campaign fund and staff, but later restored his momentum with victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina, two key states to Republican candidates.

    Compared to Romney and Huckabee, both conservative Republicans, McCain was more moderate on issues including abortion and illegal immigration, which was appealing to many independent and moderate Republican voters.

    His experience as a Vietnam veteran and senior Senator handling national defense affairs invited support from serviceman voters and those who care about security.

    Considering many conservative Republican voters in the Super Tuesday states, McCain recently started to describe himself as a "true conservative" and convince voters with his experience rather than values.

    In addition, the endorsement by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger helped him consolidate support among liberal Republicans, and added his momentum in the Super Tuesday states, especially the three delegate-rich states of California, New York and New Jersey.

    Due to the "winner-take-all" rule applied to 13 states holding races on Tuesday, McCain's win in big states was translated into a large number of delegates.

    Romney, a former successful businessman, lost his popularity among voters who have economy as their priority, partly due to his flip-flop position on some issues that induced doubts on his credibility.

    Although his tough stance on illegal immigration was favored by more voters sharing the same concern than McCain, the lead was not wide enough to fill the gap between them in the number of delegates.

    What is more, Romney had to split conservative voters, his supporter base, with former Baptist minister Huckabee. Seen from the South Carolina primary and some Super Tuesday races, McCain also took away a significant share of conservatives.

    A scenario has been raised by some political analysts that if Romney or Huckabee drops out of the race, the other one is likely to collect most conservative voters to challenge McCain's lead in the next seven month before the nomination convention is held in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

    However, both of the them have vowed at Tuesday rallies, respectively, that they would stay in the race and continue their bids for the presidential candidacy.

Republican candidate McCain wins Super Tuesday presidential nominee race

    WASHINGTON, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican presidential candidate John McCain overwhelmingly won the Super Tuesday presidential nominee race, with victories in nine delegate-rich states out of the total 21.

    So far, McCain has been projected to hold 487 delegates who are supposed to vote for him on the party's nomination convention, followed by former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney with 176 and former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee with 122.  Full story