Romney still has a commanding lead:

The AP and Fox News have both called the race for John McCain. Tonight’s race means several things. Since 1980 the winner of the South Carolina Republican primary has gone on to be the party’s nominee. South Carolina also has more military families than any other state and they seemed to gravitate towards him as well, according to the reporter on Fox News.

Huckabee finished a very close second, but I don’t see where he really goes from here. Florida is next followed by Maine and he won’t win either one of those. He won’t even come close in Maine. That will be a Romney state I am thinking. Florida is up in the air between him, Romney, McCain, and Giuliani and Giuliani has already got the shop up and running in Florida while the others were working South Carolina. Super Tuesday will be a lot of liberal minded states that won’t take to Huckabee either.

Regarding Fred Thompson, I think he will drop out of the race. He has said repeatedly for the past two weeks that he has to do very well in South Carolina and that wasn’t the case tonight. Judging by his speech this evening I got the impression he was giving his supporters and staff a final hoorah. I think we will hear an announcement within the next few days.

Duncan Hunter has officially dropped out of the race.

With 82% in this race is still too close for the media to call, but I think we are looking at a McCain victory.

1. McCain - 33%
2. Huckabee - 29%
3. Thompson - 16%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 60% in:

1. McCain - 33%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 16%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 40% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 14%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 27% in:

1. McCain - 35%
2. Huckabee - 28%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 15%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

With 16% in:

1. McCain - 34%
2. Huckabee - 30%
3. Thompson - 15%
4. Romney - 14%
5. Paul - 4%
6. Giuliani - 2%
7. Hunter - <1%

As predicted Fred came up short. He’s either going to place third or a close fourth, not at all what his campaign was hoping for. I also heard a blip about Duncan Hunter dropping out of the race, but that hasn’t been confirmed yet.

Duncan Hunter was interviewed on the Jeff Katz show yesterday as I was coming home from work. There were rumors circulating that he would perhaps drop out of the Presidential race and start concentrating on a gubernatorial run in 2010. He denied that he was leaving the race and said he has no interest in running for governor. I like Duncan Hunter, but he has to realize at this point that he cannot emerge victorious in the Presidential contest. I don’t know if he is holding out for Super Tuesday with the hopes of having a big victory in California, but even that won’t do anything for him.

Hunter should bow out and go after Barbara Boxer in 2010. The woman is a complete bimbo and one of the most useless senators in Washington. I imagine Duncan Hunter has decent name recognition throughout the state and I think he could mount a worthy challenge against Boxer. Boxer received 58% of the vote in 2004, 53% in 1998, and 47% in 1992. She is beatable, even in a left leaning state like California. The Republicans have simply lacked a strong candidate and I think Hunter would be able to pull it off. I hope others close to him are thinking the same.

Nevada has a caucus, not a primary.  The delegates to the caucus voted as follows:

1. Romney - 236
2. McCain - 79
3. Paul - 79
4. Thompson - 74
5. Huckabee - 47
6. Hunter - 15
7. Giuliani - 14

Today is South Carolina’s Republican primary and I went and cast my vote about an hour ago.

I have said before that my number one issue in this election is fiscal policy. I believe that our national debt and runaway government spending is the number one threat facing our country right now, more so than terrorism. Because of that issue I have leaned in the direction of Ron Paul all election season. I decided not to go with him today, however. Paul was always a long shot bid, but it began to look like that he might have a shot at pulling it off when the campaign money began rolling in and the media began giving him his due attention. However, his showing in New Hampshire was poor and that was a state that should have been a gold mine for him. It’s clear that after that primary any small chance he may have had was now in the past and I didn’t want to bother casting a vote for someone I know is not going to win at this point.

I then turned to John McCain, again for his fiscal sensibilities. True, he voted against the tax cuts in ‘01 and ‘03, but I feel his reason for doing so was justified. He has a proven track record of reigning in government waste, even in the military sector which Congress seems to give a free pass to on anything they want. McCain has repeatedly stated that he will oppose pork spending and make the authors of those pork barrel bills famous.

Secondly, McCain can win in November and he may be the only one. We are the underdogs in this White House race thanks to George Bush soiling the name of the Republican Party over the past seven years. McCain is well respected by independents and centrist Democrats and he could be capable of rebuilding the now fractured Reagan coalition that gave him a 49 state landslide win in 1984. Furthermore, I could easily see McCain smacking around a Barack Obama in every debate because McCain is experienced and knowledgeable whereas Obama is nothing more than an empty suit that has been created by the American media.

The problem with McCain is that he is still pushing for this guest worker program which I am vehemently opposed to as long as our unemployment rate is anything other than zero. Plus, there is the issue of McCain-Feingold which still gets under my skin. Would McCain appoint a Supreme Court justice who would disagree with him on CFR? Probably not and such a judge that would legitimize CFR is not likely to be a judge we can trust to be a constructionist.

So, I went to the voting booth today and cast my vote for Fred Thompson. In all honesty, I have been disappointed with the organization of Thompson’s campaign. I don’t think anywhere near the appropriate effort has been made to market him and while he did finally come to life in the Myrtle Beach debate last week, I think it was too little too late. That also concerns me as to how he’ll perform for the general election were he to make it that far. I don’t think Thompson is going to win today’s primary. He could pull it off, but I wouldn’t bet my money on it. I decided to help him out though with my vote this morning and maybe we’ll have a surprise tonight. He is the only candidate left that I see eye to eye with enough to support so I am keeping my fingers crossed and I may even head down to Columbia tonight as the results are coming in.

I will certainly support John McCain if he becomes our nominee, but I am much more comfortable with Fred and his Federalist views.