WILLARD! WILLARD! WILLARD! THE WINNER IN NEVADA

Nevada's large Mormon population won the GOP caucus in that state for Willard today. No one was seriously contesting the state except him; the rest of the pygmies are putting all their energy into South Carolina's primary.

While Romney's Mormon faith hurts him strong evangelical Christian states like South Carolina-- he finished second in Iowa to Mike Huckabee, a former Baptist preacher-- his religion could give him an edge in Nevada, which Mormons settled in the early 1850s.

About 170,000 people in Nevada, or 6.8 percent of its population, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the formal name of the religion headquartered in neighboring Utah.

"That voting bloc has turned out strong traditionally for Mormon candidates," said Zachary Moyle, executive director of Nevada's Republican Party.

Boyd Peterson, director of the Mormon studies program at Utah State University, said many Mormons see Nevada's contest as a historic opportunity. "There's a sense of 'he's our boy.' There's a chance to finally be accepted and part of the mainstream, part of the national debate," he said.

It turned out that 25% of the Republican caucus-goers were Mormons-- 94% of whom voted for their co-religionist-- which is what put Willard over the top. And in South Carolina, where all the other pygmies are scrambling desperately to stay alive, CNN reports pitifully low turn-out. Polls opened at 7am for the GOP primary and the state's Election Commission says not many people are showing up to vote for their favorite pygmy-- not anywhere. They say it's because it's a Saturday and people prefer voting on a work day-- except Thompson's campaign which seems to claim people prefer voting in snow storms. A low turn out will favor Huckabee. A victory for him in one of the 2 or 3 most backward and reactionary states in the Union will keep his campaign alive-- and would devastate McCain, the pygmy frontrunner (for now; Romney could be headed for the cat-bird's seat, which is exactly what Democrats are praying for; the GOP cyborg would be the easiest Republican to slaughter come November).


UPDATE: IS RON PAUL COMING IN SECOND IN NEVADA?

GOP-TV and CBS, as well as Chris Cillizza confirm that Willard won and the Post is showing Ron Paul in second place, edging McCain from neighboring Arizona. "Just when he looked like his high priced campaign was about to implode," writes the always superficial Cillizza, "Romney scored an impressive victory in Michigan earlier this week, followed by his apparent first-place showing in Nevada today." Romney's narrow victory in his native Michigan was anything but "impressive." He and Paul are the only Republicans who bothered campaigning in Nevada. And while McCain and Ron Paul battle it out for a distant second place finish, Romney has already given a victory speech. Giuliani is coming in last. What a strategist!