McCain Wins South Carolina Primary
MSNBC and the Associated Press call it for McCain. CNN called it for McCain a few moments ago, too.
McCain was able to prevail in a tight race with Mike Huckabee because, according to exit polls, McCain basically tied Huck among GOP voters while prevailing handily among independents, 42%-25%.
The victory is a big one for McCain, partly because this is the state where his "insurgent" challenge to George W. Bush in 2000 was stopped dead.
Prediction: McCain's victory tonight -- and his reinvigorated candidacy in general -- will be uniformly described by pundits as having been caused by his heroic support for "the surge."
Comments (22)
CalD wrote on January 19, 2008 9:43 PM:Florida should be interesting.
Greg wrote on January 19, 2008 9:49 PM:indeed. I think mccain could reemerge as the establishment candidate he was a year ago if things continue this way.
aph wrote on January 19, 2008 10:25 PM:At least one party has the sense to nominate the candidate with the most integrity.
CalD wrote on January 19, 2008 10:30 PM:This probably also sets up FL as a game of "Get McCain" for all the other Republicans.
Sand wrote on January 19, 2008 10:48 PM:CalD wrote on January 19, 2008 9:43 PM:
Florida should be interesting.
Oh yeah -- it will be interesting all right ...
...but who on the leftie blogs is going to cover the real behind the scenes story?
hmmm...
And the Rush/DeLay/LGF factions of the Repug's have hated him.
So, who will change their tune, or will they hit him even harder in the next week?
THE TWO CLINTONS PLAY DIRTY IN NEVADA. THE RACE, GENDER, AND ETHNICITY BAITING BY THE TWO CLINTONS NOW INCLUDES VOTE SUPPRESSING.
THE MSM PRESS WILL NOT COVER IT.
WILL TPM COVER IT?
READ HERE:
http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/19/162953/644/790/439573
Fred Thompson needs to look to support McCain, to get veep, and to STOP Romney and Giuliani!
http://OsiSpeaks.com or http://OsiSpeaks.org
steph wrote on January 20, 2008 1:14 AM:If McCain and Hillary are the two nominees I see that as a huge problem for Hillary. The slash and burn tactics of the Clintons these past few weeks have turned lots of democrats off, including me. McCain may be the beneficiary of disaffected democrats in the general election.
Greg DeLassus wrote on January 20, 2008 1:16 AM:I predicted that Obama would win NV, so Lord knows that my sooth-sayer credentials are far from impressive. That said, I think that this means that McCain essentially is the GOP nominee. If he can win in SC, he will be able to win in the rest of the south, and that is a big deal. I am afraid that we will simply have to reconcile ourselves to running against the Republicans' strongest candidate.
Sand wrote on January 20, 2008 1:36 AM:Yeah! AND ... just think of the slash and burn tactics that must have been used behind the scenes by the Clintons and enablers to keep GORE out of the race.
The Clintons DISGUST me... totally -- and I know I'm not the only one.
Oh, I totally don't think I would call Florida for McCain just yet. Florida is going to be the first contest for Republicans where all the major contenders show up to play. At least one or two of them have taken a pass on every other race so far.
Giuliani is going to have to be Horatio at the bridge and hizzoner can be a nasty piece of work when he wants to be. Romney will be blowing in with the wind at his back from NV, spending freely on media and GOTV and likely to fare pretty well in the metro and snow bird areas where McCain needs to win big. Huckabee and Thompson if he is still in, should do well in the redneck and mega-church demos. All of the above are going to be primarily gunning for McCain I think -- with Romney rightly regarding McCain as a higher priority than Mayor Mc9/11 and everyone else likely making the perhaps somewhat dubious calculation that Romney will be the easier to pick off later, after FL, than McCain.
Like I said, it should be interesting.
Richard L. Adlof wrote on January 20, 2008 3:19 AM:APH,
WTF?!? The bat-shit crazy Brownback is not in the race any more and was not chosen to be the nominee.
Senator Wackado has sold his pasty ass out so many times only Clinton can claim to being a bigger whore. McCain has no, nada, none integrity.
TheCount wrote on January 20, 2008 4:24 AM:Thompson is working with the establishemnt to neutralize Huckabee in the south. He is able to sap enough Huck's base to keep Huck from owning Dixie. The huck is wounded after taking some chances trying to woo the Bubba vote in SC. The Constitution/God talk, the rebel flag-stick the pole up your ass talk, the eating squirell, and playing Sweet Home Alabam at his rallies were all examples of his desperation to appeal to the Bubba's. The money wing of the GOP is as scared of him as we are. They see McCain as their only viable option and are ling up behind him. Fred won't drop until the Huck is done.
hubris wrote on January 20, 2008 4:45 AM:TheCount:
Would it not be better to let Huck party in the south and pump up Mitt?
Aside from increasing the probability of destroying the world, I fail to see what McCain would do for the Rep. Party, which appears to be the de facto winner in the Huck/Thompson spilt. My assumption here is that Mitt with a suitably conditioned audience would take Huck in larger states.
Regarding your prediction, I'm afraid you're right. However, the upside of that is they're only kidding themselves. He's winning now because GOP voters like the other candidates even less. With Limbaugh pissing all over their least disagreeable candidate... um, gosh that's a shame.
Could you write something about the way Nevada votes are being displayed differently in each party? It took me a long time to catch the footnote which explains the Dem totals are county delegates. It makes it look like Ron Paul attracted more votes than Hillary, when in reality Clinton and Obama each attracted more votes than the entire GOP field. That's a real story. Look how popular both top Dem candidates are. Too bad about Edwards though. Nevada was a tough blow for him and his supporters.
CalD wrote on January 20, 2008 8:53 AM:I forgot to mention in my previous comment that that some time in the next week and a half, someone may also take notice of the fact that McCain suffered a dust-in-his-teeth, third-place finish behind Ron freaking Paul yesterday in a state that borders his own.
grover_rover wrote on January 20, 2008 9:41 AM:Yep...today will be seen as the beginning of the end if we don't wake up and start making better choices. McCain is going to win the Republican nomination, and if Hillary wins ours, bye bye presidential chances, and bye bye congressional seats.
And who can we thank for that? The Clintons and their ever faithful supporters.
The "I told you so" will feel quite empty when it is in the face of us throwing away our historic chance to chart a new course for this country..
At least we know we won't torture people any more, and we finally break the dynasties...but that is about all the good I can see in President McCain.
rg wrote on January 20, 2008 9:46 AM:I think it's really important for democrats to think about the race in terms of yesterday's results and what that might mean. I think that if we run Clinton against McCain, we may yet again lose the White House. As excited as I would be to see a smart woman win the Presidency, I just think she is a democrat’s democrat. And McCain is anything but a republican’s republican. So what happens? Republicans support McCain because they hate the Clintons. Independents support McCain because they tend to like him and dislike her. And once again, we lose. Obama is competitive with independents. He has many other qualities that make him a great choice. But if you are an undecided dem, or a Kucinich or Edwards dem, please give this some thought. Please – we so need a democrat after the Bush years. I think it would just break our hearts to lose this one.
CalD wrote on January 20, 2008 10:52 AM:I was just looking up turnout figures for the 2000 Republican Primary (2.6 million) and the number of Mormons in California (800,000). I'd bet turnout this year among golden state Latter Day Saints will be high. Romney is also the only Republican standing at this point with the cash to have more than a superficial presence in major CA TV markets. Lucky for everyone else that Californians spend a lot of time in cars.
CalD wrote on January 20, 2008 12:21 PM: TheCount wrote on January 20, 2008 2:54 PM:From what I have read Florida is a closed primary. Fred will stay in through FLA to keep Huck's numbers down. I look for the GOP establishment to fall in line behind McCain leading up to Super Tuesday
