South Carolina | MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

links for 2008-01-20

Race 4 2008 Early Morning Essential Reads

All the post-SC and post-NV commentary

(tags: politics election 2008 candidates)
Cal Thomas - January 18th 2008 Commentary

Cal Thomas: “If conservatives can’t unite behind a single candidate instead of demanding political purity, we are going to get Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama with all of the problems they will cause.”

(tags: politics election 2008 conservatives GOP)
Bill Kristol: Waiting for Reagan

Zombie Reagan wouldn’t be endlessly carping about the current candidates; why are you? Did you forget that Reagan voted for Republicans who were less than “perfect” himself?

(tags: election 2008 politics candidates GOP conservatives Reagan)
Mona Charen: Can Conservatives Still Win Elections?

“A fascinating new book, Comeback, by former George W. Bush speechwriter David Frum, offers what may seem to some a startling answer: Drop Reagan. He is no longer relevant to the challenges we face as a party or a nation. He was perfect for his time. But

(tags: politics conservatives elections Reagan books GOP)
How the White House may be won — in the West

On Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, when 22 states will hold primaries or caucuses, a third of them will be in the West, including the big enchilada, California.

(tags: politics election 2008 primary campaigns Democrats Republicans)
Remarks by John McCain on South Carolina Primary Victory

Text of his South Carolina victory speech, with video.

(tags: McCain election 2008 primary politics)
SurveyUSA - Election Polls

Current election polling data, including head-to-head general election POTUS preferences

(tags: politics 2008 polls candidates primary presidential election)
Online newspapers of the USA listed by each state

Pretty self explanatory, isn’t it? Links to all newspapers with an online presence.

(tags: news newspapers internet)
MyrtleBeachOnline.com | 01/20/2008 | McCain win no surprise to locals

Local reactions to the election

(tags: politics 2008 election primary McCain candidates GOP)
McCain avoids 2000 repeat, takes South Carolina

Reactions from locals in Spartanburg, SC

(tags: politics 2008 election primary candidates GOP)
(Las Vegas) ReviewJournal.com - Romney’s legwork in state pays off

“Landslide” is not a strong enough word for Mitt Romney’s victory in Nevada’s Republican caucuses Saturday.

(tags: politics 2008 election candidates primary GOP)
(Las Vegas) ReviewJournal.com - SKY-HIGH TURNOUT: Clinton hails win in the West

“Candidate also tops Obama at controversial Strip precincts,” while Silky Pony got a whopping 4%. Stick a fork in him, he’s done.

(tags: politics 2008 election primary Democrats Clinton)
Romney Parses Role of Religion at the Polls - The Caucus

Mitt Romney was asked by the Caucus if he had any reflections about the role of religion in the presidential campaign on a day that its influence was so striking in Nevada and South Carolina.

(tags: politics 2008 election primary Romney Republicans GOP religion)

South Carolina goes to John McCain

Just caught it on teevee, and here’s the story:

John McCain took the early lead in the South Carolina primary Saturday, and never lost it.

With 82 percent of precincts reporting, McCain had 33 percent and Huckabee, 29 percent. Fred Thompson had 16 percent, Mitt Romney had 15 percent. Ron Paul was polling at 4 percent and Rudy Giuliani at 2 percent. Duncan Hunter, fairing poorly in both Nevada and South Carolina on Saturday, was returning to San Diego and planned to drop out, FOX News learned.

At this point, I’m hating it for Fred–he may stay in it for Super Tuesday, but I think he’s done. If he couldn’t do better than this in South Carolina…well, you know. :sigh:

Meanwhile, the McCain campaign celebrates.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Republican John McCain called his victory in South Carolina’s presidential primary on Saturday evidence that his campaign “can carry right through” Florida into the giant round of caucuses and primaries on Feb. 5. “I know it’s not easy,” he told The Associated Press, “and we’ve got a long way to go.”

South Carolina was where McCain’s presidential prospects died eight years ago, and he savored the victory this time.

“It just took us awhile, that’s all,” he said in the interview. “Eight years is not a long time.”

This time, he said, “It sure was nice to have a lot of our old friends be happier that we won.”

Asked if he was now the front-runner for the GOP nomination, McCain demurred.

“I don’t know,” he said, “we like to run from behind.”

Still, he expressed optimism going forward.

“I’m very confident that we’ll win in Florida,” he said.

“We showed that the first-in-the-South primary is a very important victory, and it gives us a very important progress that we can carry right through Florida and February 5th,” he said.

McCain said he planned to stress pocketbook and national security issues going forward.

“People care about our nation’s security and they’re worried about our economy,” McCain said. “I’m going to be talking to them about those issues and how I’m best qualified to lead the nation.”

A few thoughts:

Looking around the blogosphere, I’ve seen people going for the “stupid voters” thing again, as they did after Iowa. Those people ought to be ashamed of themselves, and frankly smacked upside their narrow-minded heads.

Whatever. They can tell that to the military who are voting for McCain. Maybe they aren’t as wound up about illegal immigration or whatever as others are. So they’re stupid now. Got it.

Apparently some people don’t realize it, but the military is NOT as monolithically conservative as people on the blogosphere are. Mostly, they’re defense hawks and pretty socially moderate/agnostic. I suppose it’s news to the civilian world that people in the military really do care about the war too. The fact that they’d vote for McCain is absolutely no surprise to me, and after having served for 11 years, I assure you, it’s not due to their being “stupid.” In fact, I’d say a lot of them know more about the issues and real life than even the geniuses in the blogosphere (and especially the media) do.

Some seem to think people are voting for CMDR John McCain, POW. Those people would, of course, be wrong. In fact, I’d say that some (not all, but many, based on the things I’ve read) of those attacking McCain haven’t even bothered to do any real, honest investigation of the issues. Well, I think it’s time to do just that, starting now.

Congratulations to John McCain, and to Mitt Romney for his resounding win in Nevada. Well done!

51 Reasons to Vote for Fred Thompson

Here’s one–read all 51.

“I believe Fred Thompson is a reliable, consistent conservative. There are others in the field I could support, but not without some reservations. The more I learn about Fred and observe him in action, the more convinced I become that he’s the right choice.” - Columnist David Limbaugh

Come on, South Carolina–make it happen.

And the rest of you: PLEASE keep his campaign going!

Pro-Huckabee push-polling recorded on video!

Nice work getting it on video. This is why Huckabee will lose South Carolina.

BASTARDS.

UPDATE: Via the FredFile, here’s the group behind the push polls. Niiiice.

Fred Thompson Rocks the Debate

The focus group loved him. Ron Paul? Not so much. LOL.

I’m still trying to find video from the Luntz group rating RP “the lowest in any debate ever” when he was shrieking like Adam Gadahn about Iran. ;-)

Lots of links to praise of Fred Thompson’s performance in the debate at The Fred File here and here. Video of key moments are here. While you’re there, make a donation!

Fred Thompson also got an important endorsement today from Human Events. If there’s any doubt about who the consistent conservative is, this ought to settle it.

We begin by recalling the profound words of Ronald Reagan at the Conservative Political Action Conference Feb. 15, 1975: “A political party cannot be all things to all people. It must represent certain fundamental beliefs which must not be compromised to political expediency or simply to swell its numbers.” We believed that then, and we believe it now. The issue for us — and for the conservative community — boils down to which of the candidates is most representative of the fundamental conservative principles we believe in. The answer is Fred Thompson.
…
We make this endorsement on the basis of much research, having interviewed Sen. Thompson and some of his opponents, as well as examining what they have all said and done. We conclude that Thompson is a solid conservative whose judgment is grounded in our principles.

Read the rest here.

Read about Fred Thompson and why you should support him.

Fred Thompson’s biography

Fred’s principles

His policy papers:

Border Security and Immigration Reform

Improving our Military

Tax Relief and Economic Growth

Social Security Reform

Reducing Government Spending

Israel

Education

Values

FDTV where you can watch campaign videos

Fred’s YouTube channel

Here are other places to talk about Fred:

FredHeads.com

Draft Fred Thompson

South Carolina Republican Debate

Live-blog! You can add your comments in the box at the bottom and vote in polls if/when I post them. You can, of course, comment as usual in the blog comments if you prefer–it might keep things a little more coherent if there aren’t a zillion people commenting, but I won’t complain either way!

As I said earlier, there will be a few of us live-blogging it together, so this might get wild at times! :)

Tonight’s South Carolina GOP Debate

Some of us in Cotillion are going to try to do this at multiple blogs (but it will definitely be here, at the very least), so I’ll update this post to let y’all know where else this live-blog will be posted. You’ll be able to see the same thing and comment at any of the sites hosting it. :)