Nevada & South Carolina

There were three primaries on Saturday. Both a Republican and a Democratic primary in Nevada and a Republican primary in South Carolina.

In Nevada Mitt Romney won the Republican primary handily with 51% of the vote which helped to make Romney the big winner as far as delegates won on Saturday. Ron Paul also got a big boost for his campaign with a second place finish in Nevada. Hillary Clinton won the Democratic Nevada primary over Barack Obama 51% to 45%. Although he finished behind Clinton, Obama actually won more delegates in Nevada. Overall (not counting “Super Delegates”) Obama holds a 38 to 36 delegate lead over Clinton. John Edwards is in 3rd with 18.

In South Carolina John McCain edged out Mike Huckabee 33% to 30%. Losing in South Carolina should all but end Huckabee’s campaign as if he can’t win in the heavily evangelical South Carolina he has little to no shot elsewhere. Huckabee’s campaign is also broke and has lost any momentum it may have had after Iowa.

While many in the media are looking to make McCain the front runner on the Republican side, the truth is Mitt Romney actually leads all Republicans in delegates won so far. Romney has won 66 delegates to McCain’s 38. Although the amount of delegates decided on February 5th’s “Super Tuesday” in two weeks will dwarf the amount decided thus far.

Rudy Giuliani continued his embarrassing performance thus far by finishing in last place in both primaries, save for Duncan Hunter who has now dropped out of the race.