NOT MUCH GOOD COMING OUT OF THE PALMETTO STATE-- FOR ANYONE

Being a progressive, I don't watch Fox-TV. But Adam tells me that during the 10-old-white-freaks-debate, McCain looked like he had a grapefruit in one cheek and that at one point he spit out his teeth. Adam exaggerates-- especially when he sniffs glue during his Tuesday arts and crafts class. Does anyone know if this is true? The poor thing must be under terrible stress. It's bad enough to sell your soul. But to sell your soul and then get bupkis in return...

No doubt he was counting on Falwell to deliver him some low-info voters-- the GOP base-- in South Carolina, where Jerry Falwell was considered... a man worth sending all your money to. But Falwell ate his last ham hock this morning and now McCain will have to depend on out-cheeringleading the Iraq War louder than any of the other kooks running in his incredible shrinking party of lemmings.


All of them looked down their noses at Falwell and made fun of him behind his back but they're all cynically woo-ing his grieving supporters today. GOP candidate praise went from Giuliani's sane and rational but restrained remark about Falwell being "not afraid to speak his mind" to Huckabee's loony and blasphemous rantings equating that conniving shyster with Jesus Christ. The luckless McCain called him "a man of distinguished accomplishment who devoted his life to serving his faith and country."

Romney had other problems going into the debate-- although they didn't stop him from battling it out with Rudy about who was more enthusiastic about torture-- something the Fox audience just ate up. (I'm sure they somehow don't relate that to the 3 Americans in insurgent hands in Iraq today. To normal people, it's easy to understand that; for a Republican it's too abstract or subtle.) Romney's preoccupation was with his South Carolina embarrassment. He placed 5th in the poll that came out just before the debate.

The Romney folks always blame his weak showing nationally on his low name ID. He does have weak name ID, but not in South Carolina. There, at least 69% of likely Republican primary voters know enough about him to have an opinion (his fav-unfav is: 54%-15%), and only 13% claim not to have heard of him. Meanwhile, 30% of likely Republican primary voters haven't heard of Fred Thompson, yet he comes in third with 16% of the vote.
Mr. Romney's been running ads, he's been having robo-calls go out with the popular Sen. DeMint's voice, and he's been doing other on-the-ground work. Yet Mr. Thompson beats him by 8 points, Mr. Giuliani beats him by 12 points, and Mr. McCain beats him by 17.