The latest polls tell it all. McCain wants, and for now NEEDS his opponent to be Hillary. The latest Zogby poll shows McCain handily beating Hillary outside the margin of error, while if he goes up against Obama, McCain LOSES.
McCain has begun trying to define both dems – with particular emphasis last night on Obama. There is more time for the general election race than EVER before, so no campaign is in any hurry to start the serious attacking too soon.
The truth is some in the McCain camp are particularly comfortable with Obama riding higher and higher – the McCainiac argument is that the bigger Obama gets, the bigger the target and the harder the fall, in the fall.

Election 2008 National Head-to-Head Polls

Columbus, Ohio:

At his victory rally after handily winning Wisconsin, there was no confetti and little raucous music but McCain flanked the stage with young people following post Potomac Primary criticism of the image of him surrounded by old members of the party establishment.

In his victory speech he attacked Obama HARD.

See our own Embed producer, Mosheh Oinounou’s write-up on the predicted win.

click here:

“I’m older than dirt, with more scars than Frankenstein”
John McCain (multiple locations and dates)

84 year old Former President George HW Bush endorsed 71 year old John McCain in Houston today.
In Africa 62 year old current President George W Bush volunteered to help McCain in any way he could.
If 46 year old Barack Obama wins the democratic nomination, the McCain campaign is keenly aware of the age factor.
McCain is old enough to be Obama’s father.
The image in a “change election” could be dicey for the McCainiacs.
It is one of their MAJOR concerns.
BUT McCain is a vigorous campaigner. He thrives on questions about his stamina.
McCain and his inner circle of 5 senior advisers huddled at the senators picturesque Sedona Az ranch this weekend.
AGE was on the agenda.
So was Obama’s liberalism…
The freshman senator from Illinois scored the most liberal voting record in the Senate…watch McCain chalk that up to “Youthful inexperience.”

And where “change” rhetoric is concerned, McCain can argue that he has been going after sacred cows, riling the establishment, and affecting reform since before Obama got out of school.

Houston, Texas:

41 threw his support behind John McCain today. George H. W. Bush and Barbara met with John and Cindy McCain before taking questions from the local and traveling press.
While 41 brings solid GOP cred to McCain, 43, the current president offers conservative bones.
In Tanzania today George W. Bush offered to help McCain in any way he could and predicted McCain will be the next President.
The first President Bush noted that NO-ONE in either party is as prepared to be commander in Chief than McCain
MOSHEH OINOUNOU has more on the endorsement. Click here for his take on it.

John McCain has long said he opposes new taxes and tax increases, but when he spoke about it on “This Week”
it reminded many of the “Read my Lips, No New Taxes” pledge George HW Bush made (and broke) yrs ago.
41 endorses McCain Monday, McCain has never signed the “No New Taxes Pledge” but aides say this is the equivalent.

Read Embed Producer Mosheh Oinounou’s latest on this. McCain said it Sunday Morning on ABC’s “This Week.”

Click here to read embed producer, Mosheh Oinounou’s take on the anticipated endorsement.

After the sweep by Obama and McCain in the Potomac Primaries the latest delegate count by Real Clear Politics shows McCain has about 3/4 of the needed delegates and Huckabee has less than one quarter.

The actual delegate count is completely vague. Each campaign on both sides counts delegates differently. The AP and various networks have differing numbers too. On the democratic side, it is clear that Obama has the lead but by how much is the subject of debate and super delegates which are available only for the democratic contest are another story entirely.

The latest RCP polls show Obama gaining ground on McCain in a head to head match-up with McCain. His lead is still within the margin of error in most polls and much can change in the next 9 months but McCain acknowledged Obama’s front-runner status in his victory speech in VA when he made reference to hope, “Hope, my friends, is a powerful thing…” and continued by saying “to encourage a country with only rhetoric rather than sound and proven ideas that trust in the strength and courage of free people is not a promise of hope, it is a platitude.”

He finished his speech with Obama’s signature line, “Fired up and ready to go.”

National Head-to-Head Polls

At the conclusion of his victory remarks in Alexandria, Va tonight John McCain used Barack Obama’s famous line “fired up and ready to go!” This after McCain on the Senate floor today made a show of crossing the aisle into democratic territory to shake hands, back-slap, and trade campaign trail stories with Obama!

The two mention one another almost daily now. Obama, in his victory remarks from Madison Wisconsin tonight, praised McCain’s military service even as he bashed McCain’s policies as out of date and out of touch. McCain writes off Obama and Clinton, et al, as defeatocrats.

There were a few nervous moments for McCainiacs as the Virginia returns were tabulated but otherwise it was a big night. He erases embarrassing setbacks in La. and Ks. over the weekend. He has over 800 delegates by all counts now. He is probably only 250 delegates away from clinching the nomination.

Is he impatient for Mike Huckabee to bow out? YOU BET! Huckabee’s continued presence in the race keeps alive the discussion of McCain’s weak support among strong conservatives. When Huckabee is finally gone conservative carping will further diminish for lack of a McCain alternative and the unification process will progressively accelerate. Will some conservatives NEVER back McCain? Probably. But don’t underestimate the potential for that to change. When those same conservatives are confronted with an imminent election of Obama or Clinton, they may see things differently.
Huckabee will focus on Texas and Ohio for the next few weeks. That’s going to force McCain to continue to campaign as opposed to taking a victory lap and starting the general election organizational push we described in earlier posts.

With all due respect to the spectacular campaign that McCain so understandably praises at every opportunity…McCain is the presumptive nominee now and barring a catastrophic change Huckabee is not going to win.

McCain has much work to do and for now is not yet free of the HUCK! Once again proving that the grassroots are never to be underestimated.

 McCain has to raise a ton of money, he needs a bigger team, he needs to fold the RNC into his message machine, he needs a back channel to coordiate with the White House.  He needs to get the GOP’s House and Senate campaign committees in sync.  He must wrangle the GOP special interests into some sort of a cohesive machine.  He needs an electoral college strategy, a popular vote strategy, and a long term general election plan.  He needs to start defining the opposition and chart out his positive and negative messaging  evolution through November.  He’ll need to run new ads.  He’ll need to identify his battlegrounds for the fall.  He’ll need to carefully review the calendar to see what events to use and avoid.

Some things are easily anticipated: Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor day, conventions, debates.

But there are other things; sheduled reports to congress from the DOD and the CIA on Iraq and the world,  economic reports from the Fed Chairman and the admin on the economy.  The budget battle will be another major issue that comes in the fall.

In the meantime McCain will continue to visit and campaign in the remaining primary states but his message will shift to general election positioning.

Mike Huckabee is likely to beat him in several more states.  But even during intermittent defeats McCain will find will opportunity to shore up his conservative credentials and start trying to define the fall race.

While Obama and Clinton battle, McCain would like to concentrate on framing democrats.  But he’ll have a second concurrent task with rallying his own party.

He will have to unite senators who have resented his maverick streak. He will have to unite house members who always resent senators.  He will not have to overcome the fact that no senator has won the WH since JFK, because his democratic rival is gonna be a Senator too.

But make no mistake, while there may not be as much intensity in plain view, behind the scenes the scramble is on.   McCain knows against democrats he now has a head start in planning for the fall…he also knows he needs every break he can get to prepare….the McCain Machine is in production