John McCain seems to be on a bit of a roll:
"John McCain won the South Carolina Republican primary Saturday, narrowly defeating Mike Huckabee in the state that dealt a huge blow to his presidential hopes in 2000.Well, that must feel good after what happened last time around. Clearly it left a mark:
"It just took us awhile, that's all," McCain said in an interview with the Associated Press. "Eight years is not a long time." [...]
"The closely contested state was crucial for Huckabee, who needed to prove his victory in the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses was no fluke.
A former Baptist minister, Huckabee had hoped grass-roots support from born-again Christians would help him outflank McCain's superior campaign finances and organization of McCain, winner of the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary.
Fred Thompson, at 16 percent, and Mitt Romney, at 15 percent, were in a tight race for a distant third place. Rudy Giuliani, once the national front-runner, had only 2 percent of the vote, half of that won by Ron Paul."
"There’s no doubt that McCain’s 19 percent victory over Bush in New Hampshire caused a panic rethink strategy in the Bush team. Their response was to drop the “compassionate conservative” that had failed Bush in New Hampshire and wage a nonstop barrage of negative attacks to kill the messenger McCain. Nothing was too low to rule out."Along with New Hampshire, South Carolina is considered a bellwether: no Republican has ever won the nomination without winning South Carolina. Hopefully, McCain's win will help neutralize the bible-whomping Huckabee, who was getting too close to the nomination for comfort. Hey -- Is it possible that GOPers have finally learned the perils of having "God in the White House"?
Not that I'd vote for McCain, but it would be refreshing for once to see a GOP candidate who wasn't, you know... NUTS.
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