CHARLESTON, S.C. — Republican Sen. John McCain on Sunday called the GOP contest “still very competitive” but said his South Carolina win gives him momentum heading into the next big battle in Florida. The Arizona senator and Democrat Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York won nominating contests a day earlier.
Next up for Democrats is Saturday’s South Carolina Democratic primary, followed by the Florida primary for both parties on Jan. 29.
Florida’s Democratic primary is of little consequence because the national party stripped all delegates from the contest for moving it earlier in the year. Florida Republicans lost half their delegates for doing the same, and now offers 57.
McCain took a swipe at Rudy Giuliani, who avoided the early primary states to make his first big stand in Florida. McCain said he expected to come under heavy criticism from the former New York mayor.
“If someone hasn’t run a primary, I can understand why they would attack the front-runner,” McCain said.
As to his come-from-behind rise in the GOP ranks, McCain said, “I certainly enjoy being the underdog. I much more enjoy being ahead.”
Mitt Romney on Sunday portrayed himself as a Washington outsider compared with McCain, who Romney said has been “part of the Washington scene for a quarter of a century.” The former Massachusetts governor said the campaign is about who is best suited to change Washington and “I just don’t think that somebody who has spent their life inside Washington, who has lobbyists on every elbow … I just don’t think that’s going to get Washington fixed.”
Giuliani, who has held court for weeks in Florida, said he was ready for his rivals to come on down. “Florida is a microcosm of the country. It’s a diverse state, reflects America,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.”
Asked about McCain, Giuliani said: “The case for me is that I am the strongest fiscal conservative.” He noted McCain’s votes against President Bush’s tax cuts. Giuliani also said he has “executive experience others haven’t had.”
Giuliani apparently is counting on a shift in emphasis from his response to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York to the economy to boost him to victory in this must-win state.
Romney, buoyed by wins in Nevada, Michigan and Wyoming, also took swipes at McCain, portraying him as a consummate Washington insider, and cast himself as just the outsider able to fix Washington.
“He has been in Washington all of his career. And I don’t think you’re going to see change in Washington by somebody who’s been such a part of it all of these years,” Romney said before also assailing McCain’s votes against the Bush tax cuts.
A former venture capitalist, Romney also took issue with Giuliani, saying “he’s spent his life working in the public sector, in the governmental sector” and, thus, doesn’t necessarily understand how the economy works.
Recent polls showed McCain, Giuliani, Romney and Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor who won the Iowa caucuses, bunched together in the fight for the lead in Florida.
Fred Thompson was expected to bow out after failing to win Iowa and South Carolina, where he hoped to perform strongly. The former Tennessee Republican senator and “Law &Order” actor returned home after delivering a speech in South Carolina on Saturday that sounded like he was calling it quits. He stopped short of doing so but some supporters suspected it would only be a matter of time before Thompson withdraws.
On the Democratic side, Clinton defeated rival Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., for the popular vote in a tight Nevada contest on Saturday while John Edwards, who finished a distant third, said his campaign will continue.
“I got my butt kicked is what happened in Nevada,” he said on CNN’s “Late Edition. “The job for me now … is when you get knocked down, you’ve got to get up. You’ve got to get up and start fighting again.”
Edwards was campaigning in South Carolina on Sunday while Clinton and Obama were in New York and Atlanta.
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