Sen. John McCain made a major address today on the kind of judges he would nominate if elected President. McCain made it clear he believes in a conservative, strict constructionist philosophy on the order of Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justice Samuel Alito. You can hear a key portion of McCain's remarks in the video above.

Read the Full Text of Sen. McCain's Speech

NOTE: Notice Sen. McCain was accompanied to Wake Forest for the speech by Sen. Fred Thompson, a strong proponent of the Strict Constructionist philosophy for Judges.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain, seeking to shore up conservative support, vowed to model his Supreme Court appointees after George W. Bush's and accused his Democratic opponents of favoring ``activist'' judges.

McCain today said Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton ``don't seem to mind at all when fundamental questions of social policy are preemptively decided by judges instead of by the people and their elected representatives.''

The speech, given at the Wake Forest University chapel in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, marked McCain's most detailed comments on his criteria for appointing judges. McCain hailed Bush's appointees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, as ``jurists of the highest caliber who know their own minds, and know the law, and know the difference.''

A number of prominent conservatives have voiced concern that McCain might compromise on his judicial appointments. McCain was a member of the ``Gang of 14,'' a bipartisan group that steered a middle course and averted a showdown over Bush's judicial nominations in the Senate in 2005.

Today's speech will alleviate some of those worries, said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel of the Washington-based American Center for Law and Justice. Calling the speech a ``coalescing moment,'' Sekulow said he had spoken to fellow conservatives who were cheered by McCain's remarks.

McCain `` said the words that needed to be said, especially with regard to Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito,'' Sekulow said. ``The conservatives needed a concrete point of attachment, a concrete statement from him, and that's what we got.''