Two Races, One Big Day

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Going for Votes on Super Tuesday

Democratic and Republican presidential candidates campaign across the nation as voters go to the polls on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008, when 24 states hold primaries, caucuses or state conventions.

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Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who is backing Romney, predicted that only "a bunch of liberal Northeastern states" will vote for McCain today, and that "the only alternative to stopping the McCain 'Twisted Talk Express' is Mitt Romney."

In Oklahoma City, Romney mocked McCain for once saying that economics is "not his strong suit," and pointed to his own past as a business executive. "The economy is my strong suit," he told a few dozen supporters in a huge airport hangar.

Yet even as McCain campaigned in Romney country yesterday -- traveling through Boston with Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.) -- he refused to take the bait, and sounded themes more suited for a general election candidate than someone fighting for his party's nomination.

Speaking at Faneuil Hall, McCain said the centrist Lieberman epitomizes "what the American people want us to do. I pledge to you, as president I will preserve my proud conservative credentials, but I will reach across the aisle and work with Democrats for the good of the country."

But McCain cautioned that he was "not predicting" that he would wrap up the GOP nomination today. "I've seen more than one election go against what the polls show," he told reporters after the rally. If for some reason today's primaries did not crown him as the presumptive nominee, "we will be prepared to continue in the campaign."

That next key moment in the campaign could come as early as Thursday, when the annual Conservative Political Action Conference begins in the District. Both McCain and Romney are scheduled to speak that day to thousands of conservative activists.

Staff writers Alec MacGillis, Perry Bacon Jr., Glenn Kessler and Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.