McCain Urges a Return to Conservative Principles

WASHINGTON — On the heels of devastating GOP losses, Senator McCain said “no defeat is permanent” as he called for the Republican Party to return to its common-sense conservatism — and implicitly cast himself as the one who can lead the party’s rebirth.“We lost our principles and our majority. And there is no way to recover our majority without recovering our principles first,” the Arizona Republican said yesterday in the first of two speeches that could set the tone for a potential presidential campaign.On the same day he launched a presidential exploratory committee, Mr. Mc-Cain said voters felt that Republicans valued their incumbency over their beliefs on such conservative standards as limited and efficient government — and he urged a return to those tenets.“Americans had elected us to change government, and they rejected us because they believed government had changed us,” the four-term senator said. “We must spend the next two years reacquainting the public and ourselves with the reason we came to office in the first place: to serve a cause greater than our self-interest.”He spoke before members of the Federalist Society, the organization of more than 25,000 conservatives and libertarians including high-profile members of the Bush administration, the federal judiciary and Congress. Later yesterday, he was delivering a broader speech about the future of the Republican Party to another conservative pillar, GOPAC.Fifteen months before the first 2008 presidential nominating contests, Mr. McCain is positioning himself as the Republican standard-bearer while President Bush takes on lame-duck status and dispirited party faithful search for a road to recovery. The election cycle was sobering, with GOP candidates losing at all levels of government.“Our party’s licking its wounds but also looking for a direction. And it’s smart for any political leader to stand up and say here’s how we move forward,” said David Carney, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire. “The Republican activists will listen.”Mr. McCain is taking advantage of the postelection period to outline a vision for the party much like Ronald Reagan did after the Republican defeat in the 1976 presidential election.“Republicans got their teeth kicked in all over the country,” said Katon Dawson, South Carolina’s party chairman. “Now, there’s a window for all people with presidential aspirations to, in political terms, catch the high ground.”As expected, Mr. McCain also filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission that will allow him to raise money and travel the country while weighing a bid. The committee’s Web site — exploremccain.com — went online a day earlier, and Mr. McCain’s GOPAC speech will be broadcast on the site.Despite all the action, Mr. McCain says he will wait until after the Christmas holiday to decide whether to make a second bid for the White House. He lost to Mr. Bush in a contentious race in 2000, when the senator was the underdog and bypassed the revered Iowa caucuses to focus on independent-friendly New Hampshire.This time, Mr. McCain no doubt will compete in Iowa, given that he is widely considered the one to beat in a crowded field of potential candidates. His front-runner status is due in part to the Republican Party’s history of making the next in line or the runner-up in the previous presidential election the next nominee.A former New York City mayor, Rudy Giuliani, has filed paperwork to test the waters for the GOP nomination, and Rep. Duncan Hunter of California also has announced his intention to run. On Wednesday, a former Wisconsin governor, Tommy Thompson, said he intends to explore a possible candidacy.Mr. McCain’s other would-be 2008 Republican rivals include Governor Romney of Massachusetts, Governor Huckabee of Arkansas, the majority leader, Senator Frist of Tennessee, Senators Brownback of Kansas and Hagel of Nebraska, and a former House speaker, Newt Gingrich.Over the past year, Mr. McCain has repeatedly demurred on questions about his political future and said he was focused entirely on helping Republicans get elected across the country.He spent 2006 sowing goodwill within the GOP ranks, making 346 campaign appearances, raising $10.5 million for candidates and donating another nearly $1.5 million to their races. He directed most of his donations in the final month of the campaign to races in Iowa and New Hampshire.

McCain Urges a Return to Conservative Principles

McCain Urges a Return to Conservative Principles

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