Nevada and South Carolina go to the polls; AP/Fox: Romney nabs gold in Nev.; Update: Voting problems in SC; Update: Hispanics in Nevada boost Hill to victory; Update: Obama wins Nev. delegate vote?; Update: Obama ahead in SC; GOP race still “too close to call”; 9:19pm Eastern. AP/Fox call SC for McCain; Mel “Tower of Jell-O” Martinez won’t campaign for his shamnesty pal; Update McCain/Grahamnesty exult
Update 10:03pm Eastern. McCain’s on stage. He’s all smiles. “It took us a while, but what’s eight years among friends…South Carolinians are never fair-weather friends…”
As for McCain, well.
Ugh. He thanks Lindsay Grahamnesty behind him. Cheers go up.
Ugh.
“Before I can win your vote, I must earn your respect. And the only way I can do that is to be honest with you.”
McCain points out that the history of SC’s GOP primary paving the path to the presidency.
Touts his record as a foot soldier in the Reagan revolution. Stump speech is meant to appeal to conservatives.
Did it work for you?
Eh.
Update 9:37pm Eastern. Liveblogging Huck’s concession here.
Update 9:29pm Eastern. Several outlets had reported all day that Shamnesty-pushing Sen. Mel Martinez would be campaigning with McCain on Monday. He’s decided against it…because he takes pity on Sanctuary-supporting Rudy Giuliani. Ugh all around:
Under pressure from fundraisers and friends, Sen. Mel Martinez has decided not to endorse presidential candidate John McCain, who was planning to campaign Monday in Miami with the popular Florida Republican to help win crucial votes in South Florida’s Hispanic community.
A big factor in Martinez’s decision: He feels badly for McCain’s opponent, Rudy Giuliani. After all, the former New York mayor was a Martinez supporter, and thought he had a shot at Martinez’s support.
Now, no one will get Martinez’s backing as the candidates, in a four-way tie for first place in Florida, sprint to the Jan. 29 election and scrounge for every vote in the biggest primary state yet.
McCain supporters had been told by the campaign Thursday and Friday that Martinez was coming to campaign with the Arizona senator. But, they said, Giuliani fundraisers and supporters — who played a key role in Martinez’s narrow 2004 Senate win — swayed Martinez to stay out. A Martinez spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment Saturday.
Some viewed Martinez’s decision to sit out as a betrayal of McCain, who helped Martinez push a radioactive White House-backed immigration bill. The measure was roundly condemned by conservatives as ”amnesty” for illegal immigrants and cost McCain serious political points that helped almost kill his campaign.
”Mel’s a tower of Jell-O,” said Republican operative Roger Stone, a McCain backer.
Can’t argue with that.
Update 9:18pm Eastern. AP and Fox call the race for McCain.
FNC’s Megyn Kelly had just finished pointing out exit poll data showing that the Fred Factor may have swung the race.
Update 9:05pm Eastern. The networks are waiting for Horry County results. Carl Cameron says results from evangelical-dominated Greenville and upcountry look good for McCain. If Huckabee can’t hold on to his base, what does he have left?
Update 8:40pm Eastern. John Edwards is speaking [update: Fox is playing video of an event earlier today]. It’s safe to say he’s not going anywhere…
Update 8:21pm Eastern. The moonbats at MSNBC uncover the Sloppy Mitt Conspiracy.
On the Dem side, the polls reportedly show Obama leading in South Carolina [heading into next week's primary].
22 percent of precincts reporting. On the GOP side now, McCain 36 percent, Huckabee 28 percent. The phrase of the night: “Too close to call.”
Update 8:10pm Eastern. I liveblogged Fred here.
Update 7:19pm Eastern. No wonder Hill was irked. Via Dan Riehl, the Nation reports that while she won the popular vote, Obama may have won the Nevada delegates: “Barack Obama may have won the most delegates in Saturday’s Nevada Caucus, even though Hillary Clinton bested his statewide turnout by about six points. A source with knowledge of the Nevada Democratic Party’s projections told The Nation that under the arcane weighting system, Obama would win 13 national convention delegates and Clinton would win 12 delegates. The state party has not released an official count yet.”
More Obama campaign spin here.
Update: 7:08pm Eastern. Hillary speaks. Looks like she took a valium. She’s….speaking…very…slowly. She’s slightly irked by a reporter who points out she might not have won the delegate vote. “I…find…it…strange…we ran a great campaign.” Romney’s in Florida, meanwhile, touting his 53 percent total in Nevada. He’s very peppy.
Update 7:02pm Eastern. The polls in SC are closed. It’s too early and too close to call.
The Spartanburg Herald-Journal reports on soggy voters and dsyfunctional machines.
Update 6:45pm Eastern. SC bloggers at The Palmetto Scoop weigh in on the voting machine problems.
The Greenville newspaper reports no problems.
Update 5:39pm Eastern. SC exit poll results are coming in. Who turned out?:
Preliminary exit poll results indicate that nearly seven in 10 Republican voters in the state are identifying themselves as conservatives, which is more than in the 2000 primary there, as well as more than in either Michigan or New Hampshire this year. And nearly six in 10 in South Carolina are evangelical Christians. Independents in these preliminary results account for just about two in 10 voters, down from nearly three in 10 in any of the last three South Carolina GOP primaries.
And it’s not looking good for Fred. At all.
Update 5:10pm Eastern. Hill takes Nevada. Looks like that “No woman is illegal” propaganda paid off for Hill…”With 78% reporting and a six-point lead, Fox calls it for Hillary…A forty-point margin for the Glacier among Latinos. Amazing.”
Update 4:23pm Eastern. Oh, boy. South Carolina’s The State newspaper reports on a “technology burp” with Horry County voting machines…
As many as 90 percent of the electronic voting machines in Horry County did not work correctly when polls opened in Saturday morning’s Republican primary, but most were up and running by noon, county spokeswoman Lisa Bourcier said.
At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, the full impact of bad weather in the Upstate and voting machine problems in Horry County on GOP voter turnout remained to be seen.
State Election Commission spokesman Garry Baum said all precincts are supposed to have emergency paper ballots in case of machine failure. Thus, he said, no one should have been turned away because of voting machine problems.
“Emergency paper ballots are part of the election,” Baum said.
However, Baum could not say definitely whether anyone had not voted because of the voting machine problems.
State Rep. Tracy Edge, R-Myrtle Beach, called for Sandy Martin’s firing Saturday afternoon.
“I guess I’m just stunned because the crew in that office only has to do the job twice a year and they can’t get it done,” he said.
Horry County has had voting problems in every election, Edge said. “I want her fired, I’m tired of it,” he said.
Update 4:08pm Eastern. From the Nevada Democrat Party website:
Senator Hillary Clinton: 50.32%
Senator Barack Obama: 45.04%
Senator John Edwards: 4.38%
Uncommitted: 0.21%
Congressman Dennis Kucinich: 0.05%
Senator Mike Gravel: 0%
Update 1:40pm Eastern. So, Romney’s the Nevada victor. How did the rest of the GOP candidates do? Reader Paul e-mails: “I thought you might like to know that I just voted in the Nevada caucus in precinct #1324 and the vote was 27 votes for Romney, followed by Ron Paul with 6, John McCain with either 4 or 5, Fred Thompson with 4 and Mike Huckabee with 3.”
The Las Vegas Review-Journal has up-to-the-minute results. At this moment, Romney has 206; Paul-72, McCain-70, Thompson – 60, Huck -40, Rudy – 12, Hunter – 9.
***
The results of the Nevada GOP caucuses have already been called by the AP and other MSM outlets. Romney takes another gold:
Republican Mitt Romney won Nevada’s caucuses Saturday while John McCain and Mike Huckabee dueled in the South Carolina primary, a campaign doubleheader likely to winnow the crowded field of presidential rivals.
Democrats shared the stage in Nevada, where Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama vied for a caucus victory and the campaign momentum that goes with it.
Romney’s western victory marked two straight successes, coming after a win in the Michigan primary earlier in the week that revived his campaign.
Alone among the Republican contenders, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas aired television ads in Nevada, and the libertarian-leaning Texan looked for his best showing of the campaign season.
Nevada offered more delegates but far less appeal to the Republican candidates than South Carolina, a primary that has gone to the party’s eventual nominee every four years since 1980.
That made it a magnet for former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who staked his candidacy on a strong showing, as well as for Romney, McCain, the Arizona senator; and Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas.
Allah asks a good question: “What does this do to South Carolina now, where the polls are still open? Do undecideds break for Romney?”
The latest Zogby numbers (grain of salt, of course) show Huckabee and McCain in a dead heat in SC.
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Did anyone notice the huge disparity in votes? Romney had 4 times the votes of Shrillary! Is the ratio of Republican vs. donk that great in Nevada? Our 4th place guys had nearly as many votes as she or Obama had!
Ombre Rose:
There is much to be said against the candidacy of John McCain. But attacking him for not suffering enough as a prisoner of war? What kind of ogre are you?
Tell you what – you go spend 5 years in a prison camp and come back here unaffected. The psychological scars don’t show, do they. And you go after McCain because HE DOESN”T LIMP? What an ass.
No mention in your little screed about McCain turning down an early trip home when the Nviets offered him early release. Gee – how could you have forgotten that? Or did it just not fit into your execreable narrative?
I would never vote for John McCain in a primary and I would have to be forced at the point of a gun (a hillary candidacy) to vote for him in a general election. But you sound like some kind of anti-military left wing schtupe. When you diss McCain’s service record, you are denigrating other POW’s as well.
I’m not even going to try and be polite about this. You are an idiot.
I absolutely love the parroting of “He’s not electable” as if some alternate reality of elections exists where votes don’t count. Well, excluding Cleveland of course.
Whether it’s McLame, the Huckster or the Chief Ronulan himself, ultimately the electorate will decide and not a bunch of blogophiles.
Mitt Romney 22,649 51% 17
Ron Paul 6,087 14% 4
John McCain 5,651 13% 4
Mike Huckabee 3,616 8% 2
Fred Thompson 3,521 8% 2
Rudy Giuliani 1,910 4% 1
Duncan Hunter 890 2% 1
10 Months out and everybody is ready to crown the the rich, successful guy. Why? So we can be rich and successful?
All the media adulation for their choices while the unsung guy continues to beat them.
Florida’s two Senators: one a Demo and the other a RINO. Not damn bit of difference between them. I pray for the day a Conservative replaces Martinez.
Let us not forget that whatever McCain was, now he is a career politician with more time in Washington than in the military. And his recent record, which clearly indicates his political leanings and should define his qualifications for President, is not a shining beacon of conservatism. It is, in fact, pretty much the opposite; and the, “So what, he’s a war hero.” types are missing the point entirely.
The polls, which you put such total faith in with respect to who can win an election in November, show that I am living in the same world as the typical Republican voter.
How you can view the out of control invasion of America by tens of millions of people who make the Democratic party seem right-wing as anything other than an existental threat to the country is beyond me. It is certainly a much greater threat than some terrorists.
But somehow I’m sure that you will be unable to respond with anything other than your usual “you guys are like Kos” inanities.
Please, take a look at the man so many are anxious to make our candidates based on two sub-40% showings in the primaries so far.
Not too long ago the talk about McCain was whether or not he would jump ship and join the Democrats. Today, a lot of people are trying to insist that he is a true blue conservative and a rock-ribbed Republican, and to flush everything else down the memory hole.
michelle you should consider using coveritlive (www.coveritlive.com) for your liveblogging things.
Simple point: anyone who would claim to vote for Hillary over any of the Republican candidates – even Paul(!) – is no conservative. In one case here that I’ve confronted before – and who still won’t keepoa promise to answer a simple question after 3 months(!!!!) – that person has proven himself to be a lib shill in the past, here to deflate enthusiasm for whomever the Republican frontrunner is. Today that person proved it by stating he would vote for Hillary over McCain. Not abstain from the process, mind you, but actually, physically vote for Hillary!
I know some people are prepared to do the unthinkable and sit out the vote if near-prefection is not the available voting option, which is a defacto vote for Hillary or Obama, and I hope they change their minds. But for me, for any “conservative” to actually to claim to be prepared to physically cast the vote proactively for Hillary is beyond comprehension and beneath contempt.
On another point: As a Rudy supporter (with Mitt as my second choice) I agree with Marshall and other people here (Brooklyn Red, et al) that Rudy’s fingernail-biting strategy is not only academically facinating to watch, but has as much suspense as a really good Hitchcock film. I just hope his grass-roots, handshake-and-baby-kissing appeal is as strong in Florida as it was in NYC.
Romney and McCain are abject liberals whose supporters cannot begin to explain why they are good candidates without resorting to the shallowest of defenses. Most of them either don’t know or don’t care.
Higher taxes, more spending, more amnesty, liberal judicial appointments, ignoring the 2nd amendment, socialized medicine, etc. will not only cause people to give up on Republicans, but it will cost conservatism the chance to expound its truth and change hearts.
The creep to socialist enslavement and the ultimate death of America will accelerate.
Even if these liberals get defeated, we need to do a serious examination of why we are so close to disaster when we should be having a chance to pick the best of conservatives.
If you’re a liberal democrat, you have to be celebrating. The Perfect Storm for Hillary is brewing.
Mitt Romney versus John McCain versus Mike Huckabee.
Ugh. What a revoltin’ development.
Bush, McCain, Martinez. All Americans who think that America is wrong and they are right.