Florida is History -- So are Giuliani and Edwards

The winner take all Republican primary in Florida resulted in an impressive win for John McCain. The Arizona Senator won a pretty convincing victory over Mitt Romney, garnering 36% of the vote to Romney's 31%. Finishing a distant third was former New York city Mayor Rudy Giuliani -- more on Giuliani in a little bit. The Florida win positions McCain to get close to the Republican nomination if he does as well as expected in the upcoming "Super Tuesday" primaries and caucuses. As noted in an earlier blog, because the Republicans, unlike the Democrats, allow for "winner take all" primaries (as, for example, in Florida), McCain stands to pick up a slew of delegates with wins in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut among other states on Tuesday. So, even though the Republicans have four candidates still officially in the race (Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul are the other two) compared to only two Democratic candidates, look for the Republicans to have a nominee considerably earlier than the Democrats.

The other big developments in the last couple of days, in addition to the McCain victory, were the decisions by both Democrat John Edwards and Republican Rudy Giuliani to drop out of the presidential race. Edwards saw the hand writing on the wall -- the Democratic contest has become a two person slug fest between Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. As for Giuliani, his dismal showing stands as a show piece of how NOT to run a presidential campaign. After dipping his toe in the water but refusing to jump in in Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, Nevada, and South Carolina, he tried frantically to gain momentum in Florida but to no avail. Thanks to his 15% plus finish there, he managed exactly ONE convention delegate, at a cost of upwards of $40 million in campaign expenditures. At that rate, he would have had to spend nearly $5 billion to succeed. (1191 delegates are needed to win the Republican nomination.) Pretty soon you are talking about real money.

The next blog looks at the Democratic situatation right before Super Tuesday. Remember, Caterham students, to send your e-mails with questions and comments. I will try to post many of them.