Rudy Appears To Be Finished As McCain Wins Florida Primary
John McCain appears to have just barely edged out Mitt Romney in the all-important Florida GOP primary, according to projections from CNN and the Associated Press.
Right now, with just over half reporting, McCain has 36%, Romney has 31% and Rudy is bringing up third with 15%.
The scuttlebutt in GOP circles is that the McCain and Romney camps are both aggressively lobbying Rudy for his endorsement, in the expectation that Rudy will drop out soon, perhaps even tonight.
More soon.
Late Update: Rudy is speaking now. It sounds very much like a drop-out speech. Rudy is telling America what it needs to do in order to not succumb to the terrorists without him at the helm.
Late Update: Tomorrow the GOP is set to debate in California. Will Rudy show? ABC News reports that the Rudy and McCain camps are negotiating over ways to give Rudy a graceful exit.
Late Update: Romney just gave his concession speech. His message, in a nutshell: Unions and Hillary are bad, and we should thank George W. Bush for keeping us safe for the past six years.
Late Update: One thing worth noting: This is the first GOP primary that wasn't open to independents, and McCain won it. If you look at the exit polls, you can see that McCain won the broad middle of GOPers, winning over Romney among somewhat liberal, moderate, and somewhat conservative Repubicans, and only losing to Romney among very conservative voters.
Late Update: It's done -- Rudy will drop out and endorse McCain.
Comments (28)
PayAttention! wrote on January 29, 2008 9:24 PM:Do you even read your own site, Sparky? Check the front page.
Splitting Image wrote on January 29, 2008 9:25 PM:Is it too early to start thinking about a VP candidate?
I'm thinking of a slogan for the Republican ticket.
"John McCain & Anybody Sane".
Richard L. Adlof wrote on January 29, 2008 9:40 PM:Splitting Image,
Unfortunately for McCain, the only two sane Republicans in America are Clinton and Obama . . . And they both registered Demon-crat.
marcus wrote on January 29, 2008 9:42 PM:Hello President McCain, compliments of Hillary Clinton and supporters.
NoelP wrote on January 29, 2008 9:42 PM:Re: You won't have Rudy to kick around anymore.
TPM might be laughing too soon.
Here's my scenario.
1). Rudy endorses McCain.
2). McCain become President.
3). McCain makes war on America's enemies abroad.
4). Rudy becomes Vice President or Director of Home Land Security.
5). Rudy makes war on his enemies at home.
6). Bye-Bye TPM and all you left wing commies.
Demon-crat? That's pretty clever. You think of that one by yourself, or did your local Klavern pitch in?
Anonymous wrote on January 29, 2008 9:50 PM:Congratulations President McCain!
last exit wrote on January 29, 2008 9:51 PM:Sorry Hillary, you're through.
Indy wrote on January 29, 2008 9:53 PM:Well, this ups Obama's rating on the 'electability' side. He beats McCain in more polls than Clinton does.
Angry Vet wrote on January 29, 2008 9:54 PM:Pure bullshit.
McCain has no money. Romney owns the airwaves over the next five days, and already has his ad buys in place. He also has the right-wing media a**holes behind him.
Alot of people thought Romney was dead after Iowa and New Hampshire. I believe there is STILL a long way to go in this one.
Plus, there is a debate, in California, tomorrow night! Romney-McCain-Paul-Huck-a-Chuck.
Trust me, we have not seen the last of the Mittster.
Mike wrote on January 29, 2008 9:55 PM:Another interesting fact: Romney actually won among white voters. It was McCain's huge edge among non-white voters that put him over the top.
bob wrote on January 29, 2008 9:59 PM:Splitting Image wrote on January 29, 2008 9:25 PM:
Is it too early to start thinking about a VP candidate?
I'm thinking of a slogan for the Republican ticket.
"John McCain & Anybody Sane".
...........
How 'bout "John McCain and some one sane?"
According to Pat Buchanan, McCain's platform is:
The jobs are never coming back,
The illegals are never going home,
And we are going to have more wars...
Damn, that's a winning platform...
If he keeps that up, I could win against him, and I'm a flaming liberal, bisexual polygamist who owes back child support...
Anonymous wrote on January 29, 2008 10:11 PM:http://www.hillary.org/hillary/hill.lieberman.campaigning.jpg
paul wrote on January 29, 2008 10:11 PM:Well, McCain winning means that I have an alternative to voting for four/eight more years of Clinton sleaze if she should win the nomination.
Susan Kitchens wrote on January 29, 2008 10:14 PM:9iu11ani: "I'm proud that we chose to stay positive and run a campaign of ideas. [yep. he had 911 of them] We ran a campaign that was uplifting."
Oh, the comedy!
Barnes Nugent wrote on January 29, 2008 10:15 PM:Eh, for real time results to to
http://www.nytimes.com/
with 77% reporting at 10:15 the best going on the net
I'm voting in the Washington State caucuses on Feb. 9, currently undecided between Clinton and Obama. McCain's victory makes me more inclined to vote for Obama on the electability factor alone. This election is too important to lose, and it seems like Obama is the better contrast to McCain: youth versus age, inspiration and hope versus tough-talk and fear, the future versus the past, etc. I'm also very worried about McCain's "media darling" status, because it's really tough going up against a candidate when the media is working against you. Obama also gets lots of (undeservedly) positive media coverage, so picking Obama would cancel out that unfair advantage.
I love Hillary as a candidate and I've been leaning Clinton for many months, but she hasn't closed the deal yet. Clinton would be a very risky candidate to run against media darling McCain.
oddjob wrote on January 29, 2008 10:16 PM:As a Massachusetts resident, while I have no desire to see a President McCain, I have less to see a President Romney! It's nice to see that the Republicans of Florida also don't much care for someone so transparently pandering.
Dee Illuminati wrote on January 29, 2008 10:20 PM:http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1961741/posts
The one thing McCain said was that he had allot of work to do tomorrow, I think MIT will fight on and this may be the end of Huckabee as the extreme right is forced to a choice.
This is not a coronation of McCain, just one win in a tough election ahead. Blow to the Mitster? Yeah
But tomorrow night ought to be gloves off, and Hannity and Buchannon really showed the face of the attacks that McCain will face.
A win, two in a row, yes.. Rudy done and never connecting with non-New Yorkers, his own people knew it amd hence their strategy, Mit the big loss tonight.
acf wrote on January 29, 2008 10:25 PM:So Romney will own the airwaves over the next 5 days? How did that work out for him over the past few days? I guess sometimes money just can't buy you love. Will he crow about winning another 'silver medal'? Sometimes anything after first place is a loss.
steve lacy wrote on January 29, 2008 10:44 PM:McCain is youthful and the religious right loves him. He will certainly crush Hillary.
I have to return to my crack pipe now.
oliveman wrote on January 29, 2008 10:59 PM:Take a look. Progessive ideas and experiments are being tried out in South America. Not just in Venezuela, Brazil, and Bolivia, but Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, too. Maybe all good progressives should move to South America, to help restore common sense to at least one continent.
I just don't think it's possible in the US anymore.
pol wrote on January 29, 2008 11:41 PM:I saw McCain in a video clip the other day, in an appearance with Martinez and Lieberman. You know the thing that struck me? The guy looked and acted really old.
Indy wrote on January 30, 2008 12:02 AM:"I saw McCain in a video clip the other day, in an appearance with Martinez and Lieberman. You know the thing that struck me? The guy looked and acted really old."
I think McCain has been siphoning away Rudy Guliani's youth with each win, because RUDY is looking ANCIENT these days.
Steve wrote on January 30, 2008 12:28 AM:"I saw McCain in a video clip the other day, in an appearance with Martinez and Lieberman. You know the thing that struck me? The guy looked and acted really old."
When you put him toe to toe with upstart and woefully inexperienced Obama, McCain looks EXPERIENCED - not old.
Goldspinner wrote on January 30, 2008 12:39 AM:McCain's not getting older. Romney's actually Dorian Gray.
Indy wrote on January 30, 2008 1:04 AM:"When you put him toe to toe with upstart and woefully inexperienced Obama, McCain looks EXPERIENCED - not old."
Good thing Obama's not running on experience.
Clinton, on the other hand...
