Republican presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain of Arizona smiles on his campaign charter plane, decorated with red, white and blue streamers, as he travels Wednesday from Phoenix to Washington.

The race for the Republican nomination shifted into a new phase Wednesday, with a now dominant Sen. John McCain still facing at least a month-long trek through 11 states unless he or the party’s leaders can ratchet up the pressure on his rivals to bow out of the increasingly lopsided contest.

McCain emerged from Super Tuesday with more than 700 delegates to the party’s national convention. That was three times as many the total of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney or former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee – and fewer than 500 short of what he needs to secure the GOP presidential nomination.

“Hopefully, we can wrap this thing up, unite the party and be able to take on the Democratic nominee in November,” McCain told reporters gathered in an airport hangar Wednesday as he prepared to depart Phoenix for Washington. “I think we’ve got to wrap this thing up as quickly as possible.”

But Romney and Huckabee showed little interest in backing out of the contentious race after each captured a swath of the country in Tuesday’s voting. Romney, who wrapped up low-delegate states in the West without any major breakthroughs, hunkered down in Boston with top aides as he prepared for a speech to conservative activists in Washington. Huckabee, who showed surprising strength in the South, appeared on eight morning news-talk programs Wednesday, vowing to go on.

Following the one-day, nationwide voting blitz that taxed the financial and strategic resources of the candidates, the next primary is, in effect, the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Committee, where all three will appear separately. Romney and McCain are to address the group Thursday morning; Huckabee will speak on Saturday. All three will seek the blessing of an anxious and dissatisfied wing of their party that has been especially hostile to McCain.

After that, the GOP campaign becomes a weekly handful of small to mid-sized primaries and caucuses, beginning Saturday in Kansas, Louisiana and Washington state, and continuing with “Potomac Primary” contests in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.

McCain is seeking to establish the inevitability of his candidacy by continuing to win contests and accumulate delegates. At the same time, his advisers are pushing the idea that Romney and Huckabee have no chance.

McCain won nine of the 21 states that voted Tuesday, including California and New York, to seven for Romney and five for Huckabee, while racking up a huge lead in delegates. As of Wednesday evening, McCain had 703 out of the 1,191 delegates needed to win the nomination. Romney had 310; Huckabee had 190; and Rep. Ron Paul of Texas had 14.

In a public memo from his top strategist, McCain began to make the case that it is almost impossible for Romney to become the nominee. “Mitt will have to win by big margins in many states to garner every last delegate,” adviser Charlie Black wrote. “The math is nearly impossible for Mitt Romney.”

McCain advisers said the campaign is planning a series of what they called high-profile endorsements next week that would help build consensus among well-known Republicans.

The Rev. Jonathan Falwell, son of the late televangelist Jerry Falwell, said Wednesday that he has been talking with McCain to make sure the senator remembers important conservative issues. “It looks as if Senator McCain is going to be the nominee,” Falwell said.

While he has not backed a candidate, Falwell said, “At some point, we may make something a little more formal in terms of an endorsement.” He praised McCain’s record on conservative issues, saying: “He has been listening. We’d like for him to maybe voice these thoughts and voice these issues more on the campaign trail.”

Also Wednesday, other Republicans began calling for the way to be cleared for McCain.

“I think the decision’s been made,” Florida Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer said in an interview. “It looks to me that John McCain is the nominee of our party.” As such, he added: “When it’s clear that there’s a front-runner and a person’s going to be the nominee, to not focus on the real objective, which is to beat the Democrats, is a waste of time.”