Presumed Republican Nominee John McCain is set to sow up the nomination after the large block of early primaries in early February. It remains to be seen how well he’ll do in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He’s going to have a hard time converting conservative activists in Iowa. He was against federal funding for ethanol, (an important issue to Republicans in Iowa), he voted against the original Bush tax-cuts which hurts him among the anti-government activists in eastern Iowa and he has issues with core religious rights activists dating back to his agents of intolerance speech.

In New Hampshire he’ll face Giuliani and Obama who look to split the majority of the coveted independent votes in the state. In 2000 McCain only won in New Hampshire because he was able to swamp independent voters to his side.

In South Carolina McCain’s problems from 2000 haven’t gone away:

Once a loser here, Republican Sen. John McCain desperately wants to avoid the same fate in this Southern state’s primary – a shellacking that marked the beginning of the end of his first presidential campaign.

The Arizona senator who ran six years ago against party favorite George W. Bush now is positioning himself as the establishment candidate and building a campaign he hopes will ensure victory in South Carolina, mindful that the state’s GOP primary winners have always become the nominee.

…..

“We’re programmed to hate McCain,” explained Lisa Manini Sox, executive director of the state Senate Republican caucus. She couldn’t pinpoint a reason for her opposition but cast doubt on whether she could be “deprogrammed.” Added Katrina Shealy, the treasurer of the Lexington County GOP: “He’s explosive. He’s the Howard Dean of the Republican Party.“

We should stipulate that I think McCain can win in South Carolina. He’s already moved significantly to the right to shore up his flank, a move that’s hurt him among the general electorate, and he’ll continue to move further to the right because his greatest opposition in the Republican primary is to his right. McCain’s quieter overtures in South Carolina will be interesting to watch.

Posted by Kombiz Lavasany
Tuesday, January 2, 2007 at 1:13 am

1 Response to “McCain in South Carolina”

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