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Schwarzenegger
Endorses McCain as US Presidential Field Narrows

Schwarzenegger
Endorses McCain as US Presidential Field Narrows

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed Sen. John McCain for president, giving a potential boost to the Republican front-runner heading into next week's pivotal nominating contests in over 20 states. The endorsement could help give McCain further momentum in pulling ahead of his main Republican rival Mitt Romney, who promised to fight aggressively for the nomination, as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama held a Thursday night debate in their battle for the Democratic nomination.

California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger endorsed Sen. John McCain for president, giving a potential boost to the Republican front-runner heading into next week's pivotal nominating contests in over 20 states.

The endorsement could help give McCain further momentum in pulling ahead of his main Republican rival Mitt Romney, who promised to fight aggressively for the nomination, as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama held a Thursday night debate in their battle for the Democratic nomination.

At a news conference Thursday, Schwarzenegger praised the Arizona senator and former Vietnam prisoner of war as a strong leader with good security credentials who can reach across the political divide.

Republican Rudy Giuliani also attended the event, one day after he dropped out of the race and threw his support behind his longtime friend.

McCain is counting on both men -- Schwarzenegger in California and Giuliani in New York -- to help propel him to victory in the two biggest states holding primaries next week. Combined, the two states offer 271 delegates, more than a quarter of the 1,023 at stake on Tuesday. McCain also won the backing of Texas governor Rick Perry, who had formerly endorsed Giuliani.

The endorsements are yet more setbacks for Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who saw the Florida primary slip from his grasp Tuesday after McCain got the support of that state's two top elected Republicans.

Romney planned to try to derail McCain's campaign by running a ''significant'' level of television ads in California and other states. Unwilling to cede his lead, aides to McCain said he too was preparing to run a high volume of commercials on national cable channels and in key states before the big vote next week.

The upcoming TV advertising campaigns for both candidates underscore the fierce battle.

After seven contests, Romney is down 83-59, with 1,191 national convention delegates needed to secure the nomination and 1,023 up for grabs Tuesday. Therefore, he has decided to try to cobble together wins in enough states Tuesday to topple McCain in the delegate count, or at least remain relevant.

At a televised debate Wednesday night, Romney and McCain sharply challenged each other's conservative credentials and ability to lead the country. Romney accused McCain of using dirty tricks by suggesting he wanted a deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

On Thursday, Romney said McCain's tactic of leveling the timetable charge during the Florida primary before Romney could rebut it ''was reminiscent of the Nixon era,'' notorious for political dirty tricks and the Watergate abuses under Richard Nixon, the Republican president who resigned in disgrace.

''I don't think I want to see our party go back to that kind of campaigning,'' Romney said.

''I have never, ever supported a specific timetable'' for withdrawing troops, Romney said. McCain's accusation on the eve of Tuesday's primary, he said, ''sort of falls into the dirty tricks that I think Ronald Reagan would have found reprehensible.''

McCain stuck to his guns, saying, ''of course he said he wanted a timetable'' for a withdrawal. Last April, Romney said U.S. and Iraqi leaders ''have to have a series of timetables and milestones that they speak about'' in private.

Romney tried to portray McCain, who performs well among political independents, as out of the conservative mainstream.

The ultimate effect of Schwarzenegger's endorsement is unclear. The celebrity governor and former actor is universally known in California, and his political network certainly will be helpful to McCain, who has virtually no organized effort in the state. But Schwarzenegger, like McCain, has a strained relationship with some conservatives in his party.

Among the Democrats -- who hold their debate Thursday night in Los Angeles -- the withdrawal of John Edwards on Wednesday turned the heated contest into a battle between Obama and Clinton.

Clinton won a largely symbolic victory in Florida. No Democratic delegates were at stake and no candidates campaigned there because of a dispute between the state and national parties over the date of the primary.

Obama's campaign announced Thursday it had raised $32 million in the single month of January, a whopping figure that has permitted the campaign to boost staff and extend advertising to states beyond the February 5 contests when 1,681 delegates are at stake, aides said Thursday. A total of 2,025 delegates are needed to secure the Democratic nomination.

Obama and Clinton have been aggressive fund=raisers: Both raised more than $100 million in 2007.

Obama is now advertising in 20 of the 22 states with Democratic primaries or caucuses on Super Tuesday and plans to begin advertising in seven more states that hold primaries or caucuses later in February. Rival Hillary Rodham Clinton is advertising in 12 Super Tuesday states, including her home state of New York.

With Edwards gone, Clinton and Obama are in a fierce race for delegates to secure the nomination. February 5 offers the biggest single opportunity for delegates, but is impossible for either one to seal the nomination on that day.

Party rules alone make it unlikely that either one will emerge with a commanding lead in the race for delegates. Unlike the Republicans, Democrats do not permit winner-take-all races.

Among the other Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Baptist preacher who won Iowa, remains in the race, but has little money and finished a distant fourth in Florida.

Huckabee bristled Thursday at suggestions that he drop out of the presidential race, brushing aside questions about whether he was sticking it out for a running mate spot.

''I'm staying in the race because I still think I can win,'' Huckabee, who hasn't won a state since Iowa's caucus on January 3, said Thursday in San Francisco.

Texas congressman Ron Paul has made no move to withdraw even though he scores in single digits in voting.

However, Paul has a couple of things going for him at this weekend's Republican caucuses in Maine: a band of highly motivated supporters and a natural appeal to the northeastern state's like-minded independents. His stop in the state earlier this week also made him the only presidential contender from either party to visit before the caucuses.

The nonbinding Republican caucuses on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are the first step toward electing Maine's 18 delegates to the party's national convention. Three ranking party leaders will also attend.

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