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McCain, Clinton win battles
20/01/2008 07:34 - (SA)
Columbia - Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton won heated presidential nominating battles in separate contests in South Carolina and Nevada on Saturday, gaining strength in an chaotic White House race where no candidate has been able to sustain momentum.
McCain, an Arizona senator, narrowly defeated rival Mike
Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor, in a fight focused on the
economy in South Carolina - a state where his presidential
hopes were destroyed in a bitter 2000 battle that set George W
Bush on a path to the White House.
"It took us a while, but what's eight years among friends,"
McCain told cheering supporters in Charleston. "My friends we
are well on our way tonight, and I feel very good."
Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, won a
Republican race in Nevada that his rivals largely skipped in
order to concentrate on South Carolina.
Among Democrats, Clinton beat rival Barack Obama in a tough
Nevada struggle that featured voting in the state's famed
casino hotels and produced heated charges of irregularities.
The pair had split the first two Democratic contests.
"I guess this is how the West was won," Clinton said in Las
Vegas, telling reporters later: "This is one step on a long
journey throughout the country."
No one in either party has claimed the role of favourite in
the race to pick the two candidates to contest the November 4
election to succeed Bush, with the first major state-by-state
battles producing multiple winners.
A jolt of energy
For the victors on Saturday, the prize is a jolt of energy
in a race where momentum has been short-lived. Republican
contenders head to Florida for a January 29 primary, while
Democrats focus on next Saturday's primary in South Carolina.
Both parties then turn their attention to the critical February
5 "Super Tuesday" round of 22 state contests.
Clinton, who would be the first US woman president, won
the Nevada Democratic race, 51% to 45% over
Obama, with turnout reported to surpass 115 000 voters. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards finished a distant third.
"We ran an honest, uplifting campaign in Nevada that
focused on the real problems Americans are facing, a campaign
that appealed to people's hopes instead of their fears," Obama,
who would be the first black US president, said in a
statement.
"That's the campaign we'll take to South Carolina and
across America in the weeks to come," he said.
McCain's win in South Carolina, following his New Hampshire
victory, was fuelled by support from conservatives, with exit
polls showing seven in 10 voters in the state primary described
themselves that way.
More than half of the voters were religious conservatives,
but that was not enough to give the win to Huckabee, a Baptist
preacher before he entered politics whose Iowa win was fuelled
by evangelical support.
The win was another step forward on the comeback trail for
McCain, a former Vietnam prisoner of war whose presidential bid
seemed finished last summer when he was low on cash, shedding
staff and sinking in the polls.
Kingmakers in party politics
South Carolina Republicans have been kingmakers in party
politics, with the Republican winner in the state going on to
capture the party's nomination every year since 1980.
With almost all votes counted, McCain led Huckabee 33% to 30% in South Carolina. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson was edging Romney for third place.
The results created big questions for Huckabee and
Thompson, who needed a strong showing in the state to go on.
Thompson gave no sign of his future plans during an address to
supporters in Columbia, but Huckabee said he was headed to
Florida and beyond.
"The path to the White House is not ending here tonight,"
Huckabee told supporters in Columbia. "We've got a lot of miles
ahead of us."
Romney's convincing win in Nevada followed his breakthrough
victory in Michigan last week after two disappointing
second-place finishes.
Romney stressed his ability as a former business executive
to tackle economic problems. Exit polls showed the economy was
the top concern among Nevada's Republican voters, followed
closely by immigration.
"In the last week two of the battleground states have come
out strongly for our campaign. They have heard our message that
Washington is broken," Romney said in Jacksonville, Florida.
Worries about the economy have taken centre stage amid talk
of a possible recession in the United States, with each of the
candidates offering recovery plans. Bush on Friday proposed
about $150bn in temporary tax breaks and other measures.
Rep Duncan Hunter of California fell victim to poor
showings in all the early contests and dropped out of the race
for the Republican nomination.
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