South Carolina: McCain Wins, Thompson Doesn't Drop Out

Looking Ahead to Florida

The two big stories that have developed out of yesterday's South Carolina Primary results are John McCain and Fred Thompson.

As for McCain, he nearly tripled the total number of delegates that will represent him at the Democratic national congress by winning the South Carolina Republican primary and picking up a few extra delegates with his third place finish in the Nevada caucus. However, according to Yahoo News McCain's 36 delegates still trail behind Huckabee's 40 and Romney's 59.

But then again, both Huckabee's and Romney's numbers may be slightly inflated. After all, Romney's wins in Nevada and Wyoming may be in part a result of the heavy support he's received from Mormons in those two states, a phenomenon that he may be hard pressed to repeat in the larger states. Similarly, most of Huckabee's forty delegates are from Iowa, where his victory may be partially attributed to support from evangelicals.

And if current Florida poll averages can be trusted, the momentum from McCain's win today might be enough to push him into a comfortable first when Floridians vote on the 29^th. According to CNN and AP McCain seems to be leading in the state with both Huckabee and Romney trailing by at least five points. But McCain's biggest opponent might actually be Rudi Giuliani, who despite having performed poorly so far, is still holding up in Florida polls. And considering that Florida commands 57 delegates, a win there for virtually any of the front runners could be enough to catapult them into the lead on Super Tuesday.

But as for Fred Thompson, many were expecting him to drop out once his very low third in the today's South Carolina primary became definite. However, as reported by the Washington Post, Thompson says that he plans to stay in the race regardless of the fact that he only has five delegates so far and is currently coming in fifth in Florida polls.

But Thompson aside, it's still anyone's race, and we probably will not be able to make any truly solid predictions concerning the nomination until after heavyweights like California and New York weigh in on Super Tuesday.