South Carolina's primaries are right around the corner (as are Nevada's), and it's crunch time for the McCain and Huckabee campaigns, who are in a dead-heat with each other. Romney has conceded that McCain will win the state, and McCain himself has vowed he'll win in the Palmetto State on Saturday, but Huckabee has a strong show of support in South Carolina, and he continues to fight for the 8% or so bloc of undecided voters (as does McCain). The word is that some South Carolinians won't decide until Saturday, the day of the primaries.
Gov. Huckabee recently picked up the endorsement of the Lieutenant Governor of South Carolina, Andre Bauer. Lt. Gov. Bauer is a rather vocal rival of Sen. John McCain,and believes that McCain has had his chance to change Washington and hasn't; he does believe, howver, that an outsider candidate with state experience will be able to better change Washington, hence, the Huckabee endorsement.
This endorsement should be a good thing for Huckabee, unless I'm unaware of some ins and outs of South Carolina politics that would make it a negative thing. As far as I know, I haven't heard anything. That said, take a look at today's Rasmussen numbers for the GOP Primary in South Carolina:
John McCain 24%
Mike Huckabee 24%
Mitt Romney 18%
Fred Thompson 16%
Ron Paul 5%
Rudy Giuliani 3%
It's close, folks; we'll see how it plays out. I'm of course hoping for a Huckabee victory, and I'm rather confident, but things can always change. The South Carolina primary has been expected to be a blood bath--not surprising given the South Carolina between Bush and McCain in 2000 (i.e. push-polling, a supposed illigitmate black child fathered by McCain, etc). Hopefully the South Carolina primary can come and go without too much spilt blood. McCain lost South Carolina to Bush 43 by eighteen points in 2000. I wonder how much he may lose by in 2008?
I see Romney coming in the teens--maybe 16-18%, maybe a little more. I'd say the same for Thompson--I actually could see him possibly pulling ahead of Romney. Looks like we're going to see another Last-Place Rudy in South Carolina; I'm sorry, but when a supposedly "top tier" candidate like Giuliani consistently places behind Ron Paul, an anti-war libertarian, there is something very wrong.
Cheers.
-Cydney
Cross-posted on The Celebrity.
No mention of Nevada?
Okay, so South Carolina- home of evangelicals and the military. Is it any surprise that McCain and Huckabee are battling it out?
Florida and SuperDuper Tuesday will weed a couple of the candidates out (at least I hope)
Posted by: swatter on January 18, 2008 07:03 AM;-)
Here's hoping Thompson can top Mitt. I was looking at some recent SC polls and Huckabee had been dipping lately, and Thompson was picking up some of those votes. But it's very fluid, and of course, I don't put faith in the polls anyway.
As to Rudy, I've been saying consistently since before he entered the race, that he could not win the nomination. I didn't think he'd fail THIS badly though! There's still time left ... but not much.
Posted by: pudge on January 18, 2008 10:08 AMYep, Rudy is hinging himself on Florida and California--not an entirely great representation of the nation at large, just as Thompson is hinging himself on SC.
Yes, pudge, I also hope that Thompson shows better than Mitt, especially after Mitt already conceding SC.
Posted by: Cydney on January 18, 2008 11:50 PM;-)
Posted by: pudge on January 19, 2008 07:09 AM