Romney, McCain Battle for Right

Rivals Question Each Other's Credentials

Trailing badly in national polls, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney sought yesterday to highlight the conservative distrust of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, his chief rival for the GOP presidential nomination.

Appearing on CNN, Romney predicted that conservatives would rally to his side in tomorrow's 21-state GOP voting blitz because they do not trust McCain to become the new standard-bearer for the Republican agenda.

"Conservatives across the country are saying, 'Whoa, we have to get behind Mitt Romney,' " he told host Wolf Blitzer. "Conservative voices, both from radio and from publications, are saying, 'You know what, we've got to get behind Mitt Romney.' We really can't afford John McCain as the nominee of our party."

Appearing on "Fox News Sunday" and CBS's "Face the Nation," McCain vowed to veto any Democratic-led tax increase and said he is "far more conservative" than Romney.

"I am proud of my conservative record, and I will run on it, and I'm proud of the supporters that I have," McCain told "Face the Nation" host Bob Schieffer. "If you look at my record and you look at Governor Romney's record, particularly as governor of the state of Massachusetts, he -- it's very different, and I'm far more conservative."

In a new national poll, Republicans are backing McCain over Romney by a 2 to 1 margin. McCain also leads in the Washington Post-ABC News poll among self-described conservative Republicans, albeit by a slimmer margin. In the poll, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul (Tex.) earn a combined 23 percent.

Romney told Blitzer that Huckabee's continued presence in the race, after a string of losses since his breakthrough victory in Iowa's caucuses, has cost him votes. He said Huckabee has every right to keep campaigning but added that "I think most people around the country have said, 'Okay, it's been narrowed to a two-person race.' "

In an earlier conversation with Blitzer, Huckabee took the opposite view, saying that the two-man race was between himself and McCain.

"I think it's time for Mitt Romney to step aside," Huckabee told Blitzer. "You know, I'm leading in the states that are going to be real critical on Super Tuesday, throughout the South, substantially ahead of Mitt Romney in these states, and I think it's ludicrous for him to suggest that with only 8 percent of the delegates counted and us being very close to the same delegate count, that somehow that makes me irrelevant."

All of the candidates have been rushing around the country in the final hours before Super Tuesday. Romney is bypassing the winner-take-all states where McCain appears to have a lock, such as New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, and is hopscotching across states that divide their delegates among candidates, in an effort to roll up his delegate count.

Yesterday, Romney flew from Minnesota to the wealthy Republican suburbs of Chicago, before attending a Super Bowl kickoff in the St. Louis suburbs and flying to Nashville to catch the end of the game.

Today, Romney has events in Tennessee and outside Atlanta before he is to fly cross-country for an early-evening rally in Long Beach, Calif. He will then head back east, to a Super Tuesday convention in Charleston, W.Va., where the state's delegates will be awarded, and then home to Massachusetts to vote in its primary and await the day's results. Four of Romney's sons have fanned out to other states holding contests tomorrow.