01/30/2008
John McCain Wins Florida Primary, Giuliani to Exit Race
John McCain won the winner-take-all Florida primary, hauling in a load of 57 delegates with 36% of the vote to Mitt Romney's 33%. McCain's victory speech is above, on the left. Rudy Giuliani came in a distant third, with 15% of the vote. His concession speech is above, on the right. Mike Huckabee received 14% of the vote. Giuliani is expected to pull out of the race and endorse John McCain today.
Politico writes: "Rudy Giuliani's distant third-place finish in Florida may put an end to his bid for president, and it seems also to mark the beginning of the end of a period in Republican politics that began on Sept. 11, 2001."
McCain pulled out all the stops in Florida, including a last-minute robo-call that attempted to influence voters through gay-bashing, suggesting that a vote for Romney would be one step closer to giving "special rights" to gays. This will not be forgotten.
The NYT writes: "The meaning of Mr. McCain’s victory starts with the trove of 57 delegates it brings him, the bounty of a winner-take-all contest and the biggest prize of the campaign to date. But it also gives him a chance to start persuading his party to put aside the deep internal divisions that have been exposed by the campaign and begin coalescing around him. Mr. Romney was having none of it. He continued to call for change in Washington and got in what sounded like another swipe at Mr. McCain when he said America needed a president who had 'actually had a job in the real economy.'"
Hillary Clinton, with 48% of the vote in Florida, soundly defeated Barack Obama (30%) and John Edwards (14%) in the Florida primary, but receives no delegates. Here's why:
"Florida violated party rules when it moved its voting contest ahead of Feb. 5, the date sanctioned by the Democratic National Committee. The DNC allowed four early contests: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. While Obama, Edwards and Clinton agreed last September that they wouldn't compete for Florida because of the party- imposed penalty, Clinton, a New York senator, last week announced she would press to have Florida's delegates seated at the Democratic convention in August. Florida is a crucial swing state in the general election. None of the candidates campaigned in the state, though Obama aired television commercials that ran on cable channels."
Clinton, looking ahead to Super Tuesday on February 5, appeared on CNN last night and, clearly, wanting to put South Carolina behind her, apologized for her husband's behavior over the past weeks.
Thanks to Talking Points Memo for the video clips.
Posted 8:03 AM EST by Andy Towle in Election 2008, Florida, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney, News, Republican Party, Rudy Giuliani | Permalink
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I think Flo gov Charlie Crist is campaigning hard to be our next closeted gay VP (just assuming we've had some before, none spring to mind). I would think either he or Giuliani are sitting pretty in McCain's eyes as a potential VP. But to me, the big story of this primary was the fact that even though the Dems did not campaign in the state and the Repubs campaigned 24/7 viciously, Dem turn-out nearly matched Repub turn-out...and Hillary Clinton got more votes than John McCain did. For Obama, he can look at the fact that most of the last-minute deciders chose him over her or Edwards, which means he has good momentum. I am wondering if the hard-to-beat Repub nominee McCain is not going to be so hard to beat after all...if Mitt Romney can almost take him out.
Posted by: Matthew Rettenmund | Jan 30, 2008 8:46:33 AM
While Obama, Edwards and Clinton agreed last September that they wouldn't compete for Florida because of the party- imposed penalty, Clinton, a New York senator, last week announced she would press to have Florida's delegates seated at the Democratic convention in August.
Typical clintons - can't play by the rules in place - than ignore them.
I was disappointed that Romney lost - McCain can beat Hillary or Obama. No true with Romney.
Posted by: yoshi | Jan 30, 2008 8:50:35 AM
This is all so damn backwards.
The federal government won't impose any rules so that primaries are conducted the same way in states for a federal office because of "states rights," but the National Committee of the Democratic party can refuse to acknowledge the will of a state's voters for not following their rules?
Totally backward and completely undemocratice.
Posted by: qjersey | Jan 30, 2008 10:54:56 AM
Typical clintons - can't play by the rules in place - than ignore them.
POSTED BY: YOSHI
Hillary, Obama and Edwards all said they would not campaign in FL, only do fundraisers. Guess who ran campaign ads on CNN last week that were shown in FL. Obama. Guess he can't play by the rules either.
Posted by: patrick nyc | Jan 30, 2008 7:36:04 PM