Tsunami Tuesday (R)
Posted: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 9:13 AM by Mark Murray
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Republicans, 2008, Feb. 5
McCain won nine states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, and Oklahoma. Romney won seven: Alaska, Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and Utah. And Huckabee won five: Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, and West Virginia.
The New York Times: “Senator John McCain of Arizona won the most states and appeared poised to win the most delegates on Tuesday with impressive primary victories in the delegate-rich states of California, New York and Illinois. Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor, revived his candidacy with victories across the South. Their strong showings posed a serious challenge to the candidacy of Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, who vowed to press on with his campaign after winning in Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Utah and Alaska.”
The Washington Post says McCain “surged closer toward the Republican nomination yesterday by capturing the biggest Super Tuesday states, including California, but failed to knock out his rivals, who deprived him of victories across GOP strongholds in the South and West… Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee scored a surprising sweep of his native South, while former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney picked up a number of states in the West but fell short in critical battlegrounds that would have established him as McCain's primary challenger. Huckabee and Romney vowed last night to stay in the race as it moves to Virginia, Maryland and the District on Tuesday.”
According to the Boston Globe, “Romney knew John McCain would be a tough competitor on Super Tuesday. What he didn't count on was Mike Huckabee's strong showing, which stopped Romney from staying close to McCain in the delegate chase for the nomination.”
A Romney campaign aide said Wednesday will be a day of "frank discussions," NBC’s John Yang and NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger reported last night. The aide said Romney will meet with aides in Boston Wednesday and is expected to speak at CPAC Thursday. The aide added that part of the discussion will be whether to travel to Kansas on Friday to campaign for the caucus.
But Berger also noted that Romney aides were trying to make clear late last night that they will continue to go forward. The campaign released quotes from Romney's speech highlighting that the campaign goes on to the convention.
The AP writes up the exit polls. “McCain won a majority of the votes of Republicans who called themselves moderates, while Romney won just 38 percent of the votes of Republicans who call themselves conservatives. McCain won 39 percent of self-described Republicans, compared to 34 percent for Romney. Huckabee got the votes of 21 percent of Republicans and 24 percent of conservatives, enough to keep Romney from winning in a number of states.”
Per NBC’s Sarah Demarest, Huckabee addressed supporters in Little Rock, AR last night. While some may have predicted that Huckabee may soon be bowing out of the GOP race, he made an attempt to assure voters that he is in it until someone reaches the magic delegate number of 1,191. "As long as there's still votes and delegates to be won until that magic number of 1,191 there's going to be one guy answering the bell every time there's a new round." He added, "Over the past few days a lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two man race well you know what it is and we're in it."
