McClatchy: GOP remains fractured, Democrats face a long fight

GOP remains fractured, Democrats face a long fight
By Steven Thomma | McClatchy Newspapers

* Posted on Saturday, January 19, 2008


COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Republican Party limps out of South Carolina Sunday unable to crown a clear front-runner for its presidential nomination and facing an even more uncertain future in Florida and a rush of mega-state voting.

Despite his victory in South Carolina, Arizona Sen. John McCain cannot claim the mantle of inevitability that other Republicans such as Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush wore after they won the first primary in the South.

McCain couldn't even boast the sole win Saturday, as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won in Nevada caucuses, where more delegates needed to win the nomination were at stake.

Indeed, at least three candidates now head to Florida for the next test on Jan. 29, each with a base of support in the party — McCain, Romney and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

In Florida, they'll face former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, waiting to make his competitive debut in the mega-state, where he's already campaigned more than anyone else. A win there and in any of the winner-takes-all, delegate-rich states such as New York, Connecticut or New Jersey on Feb. 5 could put him into the thick of a nationwide hunt for the 1,191 delegates needed to win the GOP nomination.

Democrats, too, emerged from Saturday's voting in Nevada without a clear front-runner, and a likely two-person slugfest that could go on for weeks, if not months.

New York Sen. Hillary Clinton narrowly won the popular vote there, but Illinois Sen. Barack Obama finished a close second and emerged with a 13-12 edge in projected delegates by winning more rural caucuses with fewer votes.

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