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Politics

McCain prevails in S. Carolina

In Nevada, Romney crushes the GOP competition, while Clinton wins the Democratic caucuses.

By ADAM C. SMITH, Times Polititcal Editor
Published January 20, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. - John McCain beat out former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee in South Carolina's hard-fought primary Saturday as the tumultuous Republican presidential race moved to a new ground zero: Florida.

McCain's 3 percentage point victory in the high-profile state that has chosen every GOP nominee since 1980 overshadowed Mitt Romney's win in the Nevada caucuses earlier in the day.

Also Saturday, in the unpredictable and increasingly hostile Democratic race, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton comfortably beat Sen. Barack Obama among Nevada caucus voters amid charges of dirty politics. Under Nevada's arcane caucus rules, though, Obama still won 13 delegates to the nomination to Clinton's 12.

"I guess this is how the West was won," Clinton told cheering supporters in Las Vegas, where Associated Press exit polls showed Clinton won the Nevada popular vote with about half the votes cast by whites, and two-thirds support from Hispanics.

Saturday's results brought only slightly more clarity to the two party's presidential contests, which increasingly look like they will stretch at least until "Super Tuesday" on Feb. 5.

Now, the main event in Florida looks to be Romney vs. McCain.

"It took us a while, but what's eight years among friends," McCain said of the state that snuffed his insurgent candidacy in 2000. "We have a ways to go, of course. There are some tough contests ahead, starting tomorrow in the state of Florida. But, my friends, we are well on our way tonight. And I feel very good about our chances ...

"I am not running for president to be somebody, but to do something. I am running to keep America safe, prosperous and proud. I am running to restore the trust of the American people in their government."

Amid snow, sleet and rain Saturday in the Palmetto State, veterans and independent voters turned McCain into the closest thing to a front-runner that this race has seen. But nothing is certain for the Arizona senator who still is distrusted, some say disliked, by much of the GOP base for his maverick persona.

"The field is still unsettled," said GOP consultant Rick Wilson of Tallahassee, a former Rudy Giuliani adviser who is uncommitted this year. "McCain needed a good, clean win of at least 10 points."

Still, South Carolina delivered a big, maybe crippling, blow to Huckabee's status as a leading candidate. The amiable preacher turned politician had repeatedly predicted victory in this southern state, where more than half the voters describe themselves as evangelical.

But he vowed to press on.

"The path to the White house is not ending here tonight," Huckabee told supporters. "We're resetting the clock."

Meanwhile, actor and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson's struggling campaign was widely expected to fold after his weak South Carolina showing. He had no immediate campaign events planned as of late Saturday, but he looked happier and more liberated Saturday than he has much of the campaign.

"It's never been about me. It's never even been about you. It's been about our country," bellowed Thompson, who planned to visit his mom in Tennessee on Monday.

Now comes Florida, where former New York Mayor Giuliani has effectively camped out while his rivals battled it out in states like New Hampshire, Iowa, South Carolina and Michigan. Polls have shown a wide-open race in Florida with Giuliani, McCain, Romney and Huckabee all competitive.

"Come on down, we've been waiting for you," Giuliani said Saturday night on Fox News.

"Florida is finally very, very relevant," said former state GOP chairman Tom Slade, a McCain supporter. "It is going to set the tempo going into Feb. 5, far more than anything that's happened up until now. We're about to be the most important we've ever been in a presidential race other than the year 2000. An awful lot of stuff is going to shake out."

Former Massachusetts Gov. Romney spent millions in South Carolina only to abandon the state in the final days to concentrate on Nevada, where half of his crushing vote total came from fellow Mormons. Ron Paul, the antiwar libertarian, finished a distant second.

"In the last week, that means that two of the battleground states have come out strongly for our campaign," Romney said in Jacksonville on Saturday evening.

For Democrats, meanwhile, the Nevada caucuses was one of the most contentious in the contest so far. With a black man and a woman as the leading contenders, the Democratic race was history in the making and increasingly testy.

Before the votes were tallied, Obama was critical of former President Bill Clinton, telling reporters, "It's hard to say what his intentions are. But I will say that he seems to be making a habit of mischaracterizing what I say."

Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, issued a written statement accused the Clinton campaign of "an entire week's worth of false, divisive attacks designed to mislead caucus-goers and discredit the caucus itself."

Sen. Clinton declined to comment on the allegation.

Whatever the hard feelings, she told supporters, they would fade by the fall general election campaign. "We will all be united in November," she said, as the crowd chanted, "HRC, HRC."

Her campaign issued a statement citing numerous reports of voter intimidation. It also accused UNITE HERE, a union supporting Obama, of running a radio commercial that carried "one of the most scurrilous smears in recent memory."

But most of the attention Saturday was on South Carolina, widely considered a bellwether of good fortune within the Republican Party. But this is the first time in modern history Republicans have been so splintered.

"We struggled with the decision until late last night. None of the candidates are outstanding, in my opinion. I think a lot of people decided late," graduate student Joseph Crump, a Huckabee supporter, said Saturday as he left his Columbia voting precinct.

Staffing company owner Ken Carey of Columbia said his last-minute decision came down to leadership: "We're at war in the middle east, and John McCain finally seemed like the one who had the leadership and experience and ability to lead this country at this point in time."

Today marks a long overdue day of rest for most of the candidates until the race begins anew Monday.

Times staff writer Alex Leary contributed to this report, which used information from the Associated Press. Adam C. Smith can be reached at asmith@sptimes.com or 727 893-8241.

John McCain

33%

Mike Huckabee

30%

Fred Thompson

16%

[Last modified January 20, 2008, 00:07:55]