McCain captures Florida and Giuliani endorsement

MIAMI - Sen. John McCain edged out Mitt Romney to win the delegate-rich Florida primary on Tuesday night, solidifying his transformation from left-for-dead candidate to a front-runner and dealing a devastating blow to the presidential hopes of Rudy Giuliani, who was set to endorse his long-time friend today and end his candidacy.

McCain's narrow victory showed he could win in a state where only Republicans were allowed to vote -- not just in states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina, where his earlier victories were fueled in part by independent voters. And in Florida, even a slim victory is sweet: The state awards its 57 delegates, the most of any contest yet, on a winner-take-all basis.

"We have a ways to go, but we're getting close" to the nomination, McCain said later in an appearance before cheering supporters.

"As I said the other week in South Carolina, there is nothing in our country that is inevitable. We can overcome any challenge as long as we keep our courage and stand by the principles that have made our party and our country great," McCain said in his victory speech.

Giuliani sounded like a defeated candidate in his concession speech, saying the fight for his ideals would continue despite the election results.

"Elections are about a lot more than candidates," he said. "Elections are about fighting for a cause larger than ourselves. They are about identifying the great challenges of our times and proposing new solutions."

McCain now seems headed into a two-person race with Romney. The two have shown little affection for each other, and they signaled a willingness in Florida to attack intensely as they struggled to appeal to the conservative and evangelical voters who form the backbone of the Republican Party.

Romney, in St. Petersburg, sounded like a candidate who intended to battle on. He continued to call for change in Washington, and got in what sounded like another swipe at McCain when he said America needed a president "who has actually had a job in the real economy."

As he tries to stop McCain, Romney is aiming to harness the weakening economy to his advantage by emphasizing his background in business and saying he has the ability to lead the nation back to prosperity. McCain has built his campaign around national security themes, playing off his military background and support for the war in Iraq.

Challenges ahead for both

Romney has sought to portray McCain as a Democrat in disguise, pointing to his stances on immigration, climate change and campaign finance regulation, all of which depart from Republican orthodoxy. McCain's campaign has sought to label Romney as unprincipled and willing to adjust his positions on issues like abortion for political gain.

Both of them now face the challenge of rallying the party establishment and grass-roots conservatives behind them -- or at least not around the other.

McCain, of Arizona, emerges from Florida with an opportunity to get back to where he was at the beginning of this roller coaster of an election season: the anointed front-runner. Romney, whose early goals of winning Iowa and New Hampshire were thwarted, wanted to show he could prevail in a competitive election outside of his native Michigan so he could battle on next week.

And the candidacy of Giuliani, the former New York mayor, was left in doubt by his distant finish. He suffered lopsided losses in all the early voting states this year and had staked his candidacy on a strong showing in Florida.

Surveys of voters leaving polling places painted a picture of how successful each campaign was.

Nearly half of Republican voters listed the economy as the most important issue in exit polls, while 21 percent said terrorism, 16 percent immigration and 14 percent the war in Iraq.

McCain did significantly better than Romney among voters who cited the war or the economy as their top concern, while Romney did significantly better among voters who were most concerned about immigration.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.