So McCain wins South Carolina...

by three percent more than Huckabee...And everyone declares him the frontrunner?

Strikes me that in order to be the front runner on the Republican side you have to have the most delegates.  Let's see...McCain has...let's see...38 delegates...and Romney has...hmmm...72 delegates.  So that obviously makes McCain the clear front runner.

I guess they don't cover basic arithmetic in J-School, do they?  I suppose this is what the dumbing down of the curriculum does.

I think I know what is going on.  The media is definitely trying to tilt it toward McCain because they can skewer him in a general election.  They don't like Mitt because they can't really touch him.  If the guy can survive a 1994 senatorial election against the Kennedy machine with his personal reputation in tact, my bet is that there are no skeletons to be found, and hence no ammunition, to use against him when he faces off with Obama or Hillary.

If McCain gets the nomination, here is how the press will cover him: old, cranky, obnoxious, maybe a bit touched by his time in the Hanoi Hilton.

If Huckabee gets the nomination: Hick Baptist who wants us all to convert or die.

Giuiliani: philanderer who consorts with corrupt policemen.

Thompson: old actor-trial lawyer who marries jail bait to make himself feel better about being over the hill

Romney:  Heck, I can't think of how they'll spin it other than, "aren't Mormons a little bit weird?"

There is no real mud they can make stick to Romney.

And Huckabee and Thompson should both drop out now.  If Thompson is only getting a distant 3rd in a Southern state (contrary to my previous prediction), then I don't see him doing much better anywhere else, except Tennessee.  Huckabee probably won't go anywhere, though.

But a vote for Huck or Thompson is now a vote for McCain.  They are clearly splitting the conservative vote.  (And as conservative a record as McCain holds, he is definitely sounding very liberal on issues such as climate change and immigration.)

Anyway, that's what I have to say on the Republicans...

Hillary is ahead of Obama, and if Obama closes that gap, expect the Clinton machine to go into full-smear mode against him...