Ok, so Mike Huckabee came in a close second in South Carolina, behind the maverick John McCain, and conceded graciously. Thompson finished in third with Romney on his tail, and Rudy Giuliani finished behind Ron Paul once again. Duncan Hunter actually dropped out of the race after a miserable showing at the Nevada GOP caucuses (any surprise?). Here are the final numbers:

McCain 33%
Huckabee 30%
Thompson 16%
Romney 15%
Paul 4%
Giuliani 2%
Duncan Hunter 0%

Honestly, I was rather depressed last night while watching the final returns. But I think I've been able to put things into perspective: this is a w-e-i-r-d election cycle--you have four guys who are all contending for the front-runner position, and this thing could very well be decided at convention (just like pudge's GOP YouTube debate song said). Anyway, the trend has been that South Carolina has been the state to decide the nominee, but this time around you don't have just two major contenders with a couple of also-rans (i.e. Alan Keyes, etc.) who battle it out in the Palmetto State: you have FOUR candidates who each take a big chunk out of each other's voting blocs, and who are all very different from each other. This race is not like anything my generation has seen, and it is anything but over.

So, even though SC has typically been the "foretelling" state of the GOP nominee, this year is different, and as a Huckabee supporter, I'm going to take heart in that. 2008 could be the year that breaks the trends and changes the status quo.

To close, I'll post another RedStateUpstate video where Jackie and Dunlap discuss what went down this weekend. Have a laugh:

-Cydney

Cross-posted on The Celebrity.