In 2000, running against George W. Bush and the entire Carroll Campbell machine in South Carolina, John McCain got 42% of the vote, and 240,000 votes out of 573,000 or so cast.Go, Mitt, go! (I'd also note that the open cheerleading for Romney in progressive circles seems to me to have gotten shockingly little play in the world of conservative commentary) UPDATE: Let me note that while I do think Romney is a weak general election candidate, one shouldn't exaggerate this to much. In the modern era, I think we can expect all presidential elections to be relatively close and Romney does have a certain "I know what I'm doing" appeal that I think the American people mostly haven't seen yet.
Tonight, he got 33% of the vote in a field where his top challengers—Romney and Giuliani—aren't even running, and 135,000 actual votes. If just the same people who voted for McCain in 2000 had voted for him today, he would have won 50+% of the South Carolina vote. That would have been truly impressive.
This article available online at:
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2008/01/mccains-big-win/48063/
