This weekend's results; Nevada and South Carolina

Let's start with Saturday's caucus in Nevada. The result was very predictable on the Republican side : Romney was almost the only candidate that campaigned there and he won the contest, partly thanks to a massive support from fellow Mormons. He chose to concentrate on that State for two reasons : first he was not making any headway in S.C. where all the other candidates were vying for a decisive victory. Secondly, he is trying to get as many delegates as possible : so he is concentrating on races that are easier to win even though they are less hyped up by the media. For now this strategy has served him well : he is ahead in terms of delegates but he hasn't won any tough battle.

On the Democratic side, the caucus' results were a bit more surprising, proving the polls wrong again. The pollters predicted an Obama victory (he had the support of severalmajor unions) but this probably fired up the Clinton supporters and she ended up winning a close race. John Edwards didn't do very well in the caucus, only taking 4% of the vote. 

So far Hillary Clinton is ahead of the Democratic race. See full results. 

The next extremely important State is South Carolina, next Saturday (refer to previous post) where each candidates really wants/needs to break through. 

The other exiting contest of the week end was South Carolina for the Republican side. McCain won narrowly over Huckabee. Remember that McCain's 2000 campaign had literally died in S.C. and that this primary is known as a national test since 1980 ("S.C. the GOP Kingmaking primary"). Will it predict the final outcome this time? 

I wouldn't be too sure considering that the self proclaimed "national frontrunner" Rudy Giuliani was not competing there and has hatched a totally different strategy (win Florida and come into Super Tuesday with that momentum and a nationwide campaign). 

2008 is very different from all the previous election : an open race, no real front-runner, no candidate able to appeal to evangelicals and fiscal conservatives and defence hawks. 

Some people are clearly out of the race : Fred Thompson, for instance, is going to have to get out of the race after a very disappointing showing in S.C.  Apparently he wasn't very engaged in the race, some people said he was not running for President but walking.

If were lucky, the suspense might continue even after February 5 !