The pressure's on
for Republicans to show staying power in a presidential
primary race where, as Fred Thompson put it Wednesday,
''everyone gets to be hero of the day.''
After three major
contests with three different winners, Republicans are
deep in an anything-goes scramble for South Carolina's
primary Saturday, with Mitt Romney the latest to take
a victory lap. ''I'm not making predictions about
what's going to happen in every other state, but I'm
feeling pretty darn good at this point,'' he said, coming
off of a much-needed win in his native Michigan.
Thompson hopes
it's his turn to be a hero.
''There's no
question we've got to do very well here,'' said the former
Tennessee senator, who fizzled in earlier contests.
''Different people are winning these different major
contests, and I think a different person will win
Saturday in South Carolina. No one has settled in on
anyone.''
The same was
true, with a smaller cast, in the Democratic race. Democrats
competed for Nevada's caucuses, also Saturday, after a
toned-down TV debate in which top rivals Hillary
Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama pledged to tamp down
arguments between their camps over race.
Romney said the
Michigan primary Tuesday ''gave me the kind of boost I
needed.'' Anything short of victory would have left his
campaign on the ropes, after his losses to Mike
Huckabee in Iowa and John McCain in New Hampshire.
Thompson, in a
pitched competition with Huckabee for the evangelical vote
in South Carolina, said he's the one with consistent social
conservative credentials. Of the former Arkansas
governor's record, ''liberal would be the word I
would apply to it,'' he said. And he pointed to
Romney's policy conversions to the Right in saying of
himself, ''Where I stand doesn't depend on where I'm
standing.''
Huckabee said
it's ''ludicrous'' to think he's liberal and pointed out he
favors a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage,
and Thompson doesn't.
''The writers
strike needs to end soon,'' Huckabee said with mock concern
about Thompson's rhetoric. ''He's got to come up with some
good lines. And that's not one of them that's going to
be credible.''
Huckabee
discounted Romney's business experience as an asset in a
time of great economic worry. He said his record of
creating jobs and cutting deficits in Arkansas counts
for more.
''You know,
that's what people are looking for: Can you steer the canoe
through low water?'' he said.
McCain predicted
he would prevail this time in South Carolina, the state
that derailed his candidacy eight years ago.
Out of Michigan
before the polls closed, McCain told South Carolina
supporters: ''For a minute there in New Hampshire, I thought
this campaign might be getting easier. But you know
what? We've gotten pretty good at doing things the
hard way too. I think we've shown them we don't mind a
fight.''
The Arizona
senator emphasized Romney's ties to Michigan. He grew up
there and his father, George, was an auto company executive
and a popular governor.
''Michigan
welcomed their native son with their support,'' McCain said.
Indeed,
interviews with voters as they left polling stations
indicated Romney's roots mattered to many of them --
four in 10 said those ties were important in how they
voted. That's of no help in states coming next.
But the tea
leaves were also troubling for McCain, who was powered to
victory in New Hampshire largely by independents and has yet
to show he can rally the Republican base behind him.
Michigan exit polls suggested McCain only got about a
quarter of votes cast by Republicans in a state where
citizens could participate in either party's primary.
In Michigan,
Romney had 39% of the vote, McCain had 30%, and Huckabee
16%. No other Republican fared better than single digits.
McCain won the
New Hampshire primary in 2000 only to see his campaign run
into a wall in South Carolina, where George W. Bush emerged
victorious and went on to wrap up the GOP nomination.
The top
Democratic candidates -- Clinton, Obama, and former North
Carolina senator John Edwards -- were locked in a tight
battle in Nevada. All three were campaigning in the
state.
In their debate
on Tuesday night, Clinton and Obama sought to defuse
their flash point over race, including comments by the
former first lady on President Lyndon Johnson's role
in winning approval of civil rights legislation in the
1960s, comments that some of Obama's backers suggested
belittled the role of Martin Luther King Jr.
On
Tuesday, the slain civil rights leader's birthday, they
jointly pledged to put the matter behind them. Obama
is seeking to become the nation's first black
president.
Clinton won the
Democratic primary in Michigan, but her victory was
essentially meaningless since the contest was held in
violation of party rules and major Democratic
candidates did not campaign there.
On the Democratic
side, Obama won the kickoff Iowa caucuses but Clinton
came back with a narrow victory in the New Hampshire
primary, defying polls.
After the
Saturday caucuses for both parties in Nevada and the GOP
primary in South Carolina, attention turns to the Democratic
primary in South Carolina on January 26 and then the
Florida primary on January 29, where Rudy Giuliani
hopes to spring into the race as a top GOP contender.
The former New
York City mayor got only 3% of the Michigan vote, trailing
Thompson and Texas representative Ron Paul as well as the
top three, and he hasn't fared better than fourth in
any of the states so far.
After that, Super
Tuesday: contests in 22 states on February 5.
Romney spoke on
the CBS Early Show, NBC's Today Show, and
ABC's Good Morning America. Thompson spoke on
CNN, and Huckabee on Fox. (Tom Raum, AP)
