Romney wins narrowly while Rudy Giuliani (a client) finishes a strong second:
Romney 21%
Giuliani 17%
Brownback 15%
Gingrich 14%
McCain 12%On combined first and second place choices, it’s a win for Rudy:
Giuliani 34%
Gingrich 30%
Romney 30%
Today I met Major Eric England, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He has a new book out called The Troops Need You America. You can check out his website at www.troopsneedyou.com. In his book, he outlines keys to winning the war according to the troops on the ground. This guy really impressed me with his knowledge and experience. The ideas and steps he lays out have come directly from troops on the ground. There are some things that the Generals are not picking up on that seem common knowledge to the troops on the ground. For example, allowing the troops to have more freedom to communicate with the locals and altering predictable patterns in operations.
The traditional Spartanburg straw poll kicked off Thursday night with Spartanburg County Republicans casting their “non-binding vote” for their favorite in the 2008 primary. Despite the severe weather that swept through the south that evening, the turnout was still over 800 votes. The weather wasn’t the only surprise that night; so were the results.
While I haven’t found the official final results, a three-way dead heat was reported close to the end of counting between Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and ………………. Duncan Hunter??
My shock isn’t at all meant to knock Hunter, but rather I’m quite impressed! Duncan Hunter has spent very little money so far and has been practically ignored by the media. For him to make such a strong showing like that is astonishing and I bet will open up some pocket books for him now.
Rudy’s showing was also a bit unexpected for me as well. South Carolina is a very conservative Christian state and I wouldn’t have expected Rudy to do as well there. This may very well show that Giuliani is capable of holding his own in the conservative southern primaries.
The updated count put McCain in a dead heat with former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and California Rep. Duncan Hunter. Beltram would not release any specific numbers and said a final tally would be known Friday afternoon.
The count was suspended because of severe weather that swept across South Carolina.
With 81 of 92 precincts reporting Thursday night, Giuliani garnered 158 votes. Hunter was a close second with 152 votes and McCain was third with 116 votes, according to county GOP officials.
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback had 83 votes, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 80 votes and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rounded out the front-runners with 21 votes.
UPDATE
Arizona Sen. John McCain: 164
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani: 162
California Rep. Duncan Hunter: 158
Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback: 85
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney: 80
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: 33 (write-in)
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee: 21
Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo: 10
Attorney John Cox: 4
Texas Rep. Ron Paul: 4
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice: 2 (write-in)
Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore: 1
Former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson: 1
Sanders (the party was unable to identify this candidate): 1 (write-in)