Monday, January 21, 2008

McCains claims victory after GOP abandonment

One of odder items about Sen. John McCain's "victory" in South Carolina is the fact that he saw his support drop from 2000 and also the number of Republicans voting dropped significantly, leading one to believe McCain won a dying party's primary.

In South Carolina, McCain saw his support drop from around 240,000 in 2000 to around 143,000 in 2008, or a drop in percentage from 42 percent of the vote to 33 percent.

McCain's "victory" came about because of a greater split in the GOP and also apparently a number of people abandoning the GOP. In 2000 more than 573,000 Republicans voted in the South Carolina primary. In 2008 only around 431,000 Republicans voted, or a drop of more than 25 percent.

Supposedly McCain won with the support of independents but one has to wonder if most are just waiting for the upcoming Democratic primary to vote. But perhaps McCain can be comforted by the fact that the party's nomination he is after is filled by people who hate him.

One only has to look at those making allegations he collaborated with the North Vietnamese while he was a POW. And one thought these people were slimy with their allegations about Sen. John Kerry.

In 2004 McCain had the opportunity to ditch these hatemongers, instead he doubled his efforts to win their support. If this is the party he wants to lead so badly perhaps he should have it.

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