McCain Looks to Clinch GOP Nomination

UPDATE: McCain is Republican Nominee!

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Elisabeth Bumiller and Michael Cooper report that John McCain's on the verge of securing the Republican presidential nomination:

Senator John McCain, a one-time insurgent whose campaign was all but dead seven months ago, took a big step toward locking up the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday night as he appeared poised to defeat former Gov. Mike Huckabee in the Ohio and Texas Republican primaries, according to projections by television networks and The Associated Press.

Although Mr. McCain had been far ahead in the delegate count and been bestowed with the unofficial title of “likely Republican nominee” since his string of victories on Feb. 5, Tuesday’s results appear to put him within reach of the 1,191 delegates he needs for the nomination. Mr. McCain also won the Vermont primary and is projected to win the Rhode Island primary.

The Associated Press and television networks projected that Mr. McCain won enough delegates to clinch the nomination, but The New York Times has him still short of the mark.

In a sign that his party is now officially rallying around him, Mr. McCain will travel to the White House on Wednesday morning for a formal endorsement by President Bush, a Republican official said Tuesday night.

Even though Mr. Huckabee has not conceded the race to Mr. McCain, Tuesday’s results cleared the way for him to move more aggressively forward with fund-raising, building a national campaign operation and positioning himself as a general election candidate — at a time when the Democrats were fighting among themselves .

Mr. McCain’s advisers said he had a steady schedule of fund-raising through March, in New York, Palm Beach, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Denver.

Mr. McCain also has a weeklong foreign trip planned in March as part of his Senate business, but he will use it to try to promote his foreign policy credentials to voters.

The advisers said the official kick-off of the McCain campaign would be the first week of April, when Mr. McCain is planning to go on what his campaign is a calling a national “bio tour” to reintroduce himself to the country in places that have been important parts of his life: Annapolis, for example, where he graduated from the United States Naval Academy, and Naval Air Station Meridian in Mississippi, where McCain Field is named after Mr. McCain’s grandfather.

I'll have more later, after I watch some of the election returns.