Thank God! McCain wins in SC
Ok – perhaps I was a little too nervous. Perhaps I was a little too cautious. Who knows. But the good news is that John McCain won the Republican primary in SC which dispels doubts about his ability to win in the Bible Belt and increases my faith that the American electorate knows what is at stakes in this election.
Now while part of me wants McCain to get the nomination, another part of me knows that if he does it will make a victory for the Dems all that much harder come November. Still, I would rather not even risk having someone like Huckabee in the general election. As I wrote earlier, never say never.
For the meantime the primaries go on. It is shaping up to be a great race on both sides. Clinton and McCain are back in the top spots, but with SC coming up for the Dems and Obama 10 pts ahead Mrs Clinton might have another rough day coming. McCain has to deal with Giuliani who, up until this point, has been largely absent from the primary race.
It is difficult to call things right now, but I have feeling that as the economy worses and the public gets worried that Mrs Clinton is going to shine on the Dem side. The same might happen to Mr McCain, although Mr Guiliani is going to play the fear card as much as he can in Florida.
When his campaign was at its lowest and he could barely meet payroll there was always a case to be made that McCain would storm back to the front ranks. The improved security picture in Iraq and the death of the immigration bill positioned him to fill the void left by a stalled Republican field.
With the center fragmented, non-starters like Ron Paul (second in the Nevada primaries) and Mike Huckabee (who, by the way, registered a mere three-point loss to McCain in SC), candidates who should never have made it out of the starting gate, are given undue purchase. Both advocate an emasculated foreign policy principled on being “nice” to other countries. Happily, Huckabee’s appeal to non-evangelical voters is virtually nonexistent and mainstream support for Paul’s opposition to the war is losing steam as the issue loses (some) salience. Bottom line, neither have a chance of winning the Republican nomination.
And you’re probably right about victory being made harder for the Dems with a McCain win. He looks like the only true conservative who would be able to draw Democratic and independent votes away from Clinton or Obama. But speculation only takes you so far. If Rudy’s firewall holds up in Florida, it’s a new day.
Well – so much for Rudi and the worse run campaign in recent memory. Perhaps ever. At least he threw his support to McCain, which is good.
I know Huckabee was/is a long shot – but who cares. The fact that the man is even on the national stage is scary!
Somehow i missed the point. Probably lost in translation
Anyway … nice blog to visit.
cheers, Cosigner.