SC Presidential Primary 2008

[monsoon]

Apparently Mitt Romney has pulled his campaign and all advertising out of SC and pouring all these resources into Michigan. It would seem to me that he is making the same mistake that Kerry made in snubbing the South, but what can we expect from a politican from the NE.

[Greenville]

Apparently Mitt Romney has pulled his campaign and all advertising out of SC and pouring all these resources into Michigan. It would seem to me that he is making the same mistake that Kerry made in snubbing the South, but what can we expect from a politican from the NE.

[vicupstate]

Apparently Mitt Romney has pulled his campaign and all advertising out of SC and pouring all these resources into Michigan. It would seem to me that he is making the same mistake that Kerry made in snubbing the South, but what can we expect from a politican from the NE.

[Greenville]

Michigan is pretty much a must win for Romney. He was born and raised there and his dad was a popular Governor in the '60's. If he loses it, his credibility is gone.

In SC it will be a battle between McCain and Huckabee. Whichever of those two wins, will have strong momentum going into FL. FL is the last state before Tsunami Tueday when 20+ states vote all on the same day.

A poll out today has McCain up 27-24 over Huckabee. Romney is at 16% and Thompson 12%.

[monsoon]

Myrtle Beach is getting a lot of national exposure now considering the upcoming debates there.

[Spartan]

If Mitt Romney really wanted to help the Republican cause he would go ahead and drop out. He's not going to win, and he's just prolonging his own demise.

[monsoon]

^It doesn't seem likely at this point given that he has more delegates than anyone else.

GOP Delegates

• Romney - 42

• Huckabee - 32

• McCain - 13

• Thompson - 3

• Hunter - 1

  Democratic Delegates

  • Obama - 25

  • Clinton - 24

  • Edwards - 18

  South Carolina is shaping up to be a "perfect storm" in terms of all these campaigns converging on the state for votes.

[Spartan]

Indeed. It would seem that I was wrong about him. This race is still wide open on all accounts.

[Spartan]

This is the kind of crap that makes our fair state look bad. Some people are still mad at McCain for his comments about the Confederate Flag seven years ago, stating that he agreed with those who think it should be removed from the State House (as it was still a hot topic at that time). Some protesters were waving the flag as his bus rolled into his campaign stops in Greenville and in Spartanburg.

[Greenville]

^It doesn't seem likely at this point given that he has more delegates than anyone else.

GOP Delegates

• Romney - 42

• Huckabee - 32

• McCain - 13

• Thompson - 3

• Hunter - 1

  Democratic Delegates

  • Obama - 25

  • Clinton - 24

  • Edwards - 18

  South Carolina is shaping up to be a "perfect storm" in terms of all these campaigns converging on the state for votes.

  You forgot about Ron Paul. He has 2 delegates, and is currently fourth in terms of votes among Republican candidates. Although the media has largely ignored him, he raised more money during the fourth quarter than any other candidate. He also has a lot more votes than Guiliani or Thompson. And in contrast to the other candidates, he is saving his money to use in the couple of weeks prior to Super Tuesday.

  Most of the Republican candidates are having money issues. Giuliani has asked his people to defer paychecks and essentially work for free for the time being. As we know, he is putting all of his chips on Florida. McCain spent a ton of money in New Hampshire. Huckabee spent a lot early on as well. Thompson is supposedly low on money and has hinged everything on SC. If he doesn't do well here, I expect him to drop out. Romney has put a lot of his own money into the campaign thus far, and his results have been somewhat disappointing when you consider how much money he spent in Iowa and New Hampshire.

  I say all that to say that it should be a very interesting race for the Republican nomination. I don't see South Carolina being as important a state to win as it was in the past, simply because this race is so wide open.

[BrasilnSC]

Can anyone tell me if I can vote in both the Republican and Democratic primaries, or must I choose one? I've look everywhere.

[CorgiMatt]

You have to pick one.

[Spartan]

You have to pick one.

[vicupstate]

Yep. When you go to vote they will ask you which one you want to vote in.

[Spartan]

Hmm. Interesting. I thought that the Dems had moved theirs up to be on the same day.

[monsoon]

Hmm. Interesting. I thought that the Dems had moved theirs up to be on the same day.

[krazeeboi]

As we saw, McCain won the GOP primary. The Democratic primary on this Saturday will be crucial for Obama. He's got a good chance of winning, but the competition from Hilary in particular will be pretty stiff.

[monsoon]

The geographic results of Huckabee vs McCain are interesting. You could almost draw a diagonal across the state with Columbia and the Coastal areas on one side and GSP and the upstate on the other side, and that divide shows that Huckabee won all of the upstate counties while McCain won all of the coastal counties and the SE portion of the state including Columbia.

The media has been characterizing SC as a result as the upstate being very conservative whilst the other half was a lot more progressive. It's almost like there is two different South Carolinas.

[GvilleSC]

^^That's if you're looking by congressional districts. It becomes almost a clear cut line across the state.

By county, the result are different and show no clear 'either/or' boundary. Check it out here: Election Results . You can switch between the two views (Congressional districts and county winners).

I don't think there's two South Carolinas.

[Spartan]

If you look at the results from the Charlotte Observer's interactive map, it looks more like what monsoon is talking about. This shows it by percentages, not just who won which county. The number of votes is much more relevant in the SC primaries than the W or the L since the delegates are split up.

[GvilleSC]

If you look at the results from the Charlotte Observer's interactive map, it looks more like what monsoon is talking about. This shows it by percentages, not just who won which county. The number of votes is much more relevant in the SC primaries than the W or the L since the delegates are split up.

[Spartan]

Its not as clear, but there is a trend of people in the northern half of the state voting for Huckabee, and a trend in the lower half of the state voting for McCain.

[monsoon]

I saw it in the NY times. It's very clear here.

http://politics.nytimes.com/election-guide.../states/SC.html

It's very clear that one side of the state went for Huckabee and the other side for McCain.

[Spartan]

The margin of victory is interesting. McCain won big in Charleston and Columbia, but in the Upstate, Huckabee did not win his counties by as wide of a margin.

[GvilleSC]

The turnout percentages are also interesting. The places that got the wintry weather, generally had higher turnout. Pickens County led the state with 27%, followed by Greenville and Lexington Counties with 26%, and Anderson and Oconee Counties with 24%. Spartanburg and Beaufort counties had 23% turnout.

Horry had a weak 11%. Charleston had 19%, which Richland had only 15%