The numbers are in for one of the red stronghold states, namely South Carolina, and the results are not pretty for either Rudy Giuliani or Fred Thompson. Thompson came away with less than half of the votes that McCain did, which is bad considering he was supposed to clean up in SC. Rudy did even worse and again came in behind “fringe candidate” Ron Paul, 15,773 to 9,112. In fact, Paul has managed to beat Rudy Giuliani in 5 of the 7 states that have held caucuses or primaries so far. Quite a feat when you consider that, as Rudy is constantly reminding us, he was the mayor of New York during 9/11. The guy who was center stage during the greatest disaster in our country’s history is being beat by a man who some say is in the pocket of the KKK. Ooouch!

What’s happening on the GOP side is that true conservative Republicans are being pushed towards candidates that they are loathe to support. Rudy and Feddo were their go-to guys, but both will most likely be out of the race come Super Tuesday. Ron Paul represents libertarian ideals and has stated that he’s anti-war. Mitt Romney’s religious background and record in Massachusetts puts him outside the “comfort” zone of most right-wingers. And while McCain is the stand-up ex-veteran that would seem to be just the GOP’s type, he still has moments of unpredictability that makes voting for him risky.

The net result is that there is no “good” choice on the Republican side of the isle and GOP voters (so far at least) are staying home in droves because of it. From Crooks and Liars:

“In 2000 McCain took 237,888 votes in South Carolina. Tonight he has just over half those number of votes with 134,474 as I write this. Republican turnout will be well below where it was in 2000. More than 100,000 votes short.”

The evidence is clear that the general populace is sick and tired of Bush’s Republican policies. They really do want change, even if it comes from someone on the edge like Ron Paul. So no matter what happens on the GOP side, it is looking increasingly likely that 2008 will be a rout for Democrats.

There’s only one small problem – Hillary. Nominating her to the ticket would surely throw the balance back to the GOP side of the equation. The vast majority of moderate Dems and Independent voters hate her enough that if she wins the nomination, they’ll be the ones staying home on November 4th, I know I probably will. I think this is why we’ve seen a rash of right-wing news organizations suddenly supporting Hillary. The only viable GOP strategy is to make sure that McCain goes up against Clinton and not Barack, hence the “new love”. No matter what happens, I have to say that this year’s election is shaping up to be one of the most memorable and exciting of the last quarter century. It’s about time.

UPDATE: Want more proof that the far-right hates John McCain? Look no further than this article from the Washington Post which reports on Rush Limbaugh and Tom Delay’s attempts at derailing his campaign. The right’s getting nervous and desperate and I’m loving every minute of it. Hat tip to Ed Cone.

UPDATE II: Why wait for Super Tuesday? CNN reports that Thompson is officially hanging up his hat in the race. He never really had a chance anyway, despite what some people though. As my friend David Miller points out, one half of the “Frudy” team is gone. I wonder how long Mr. Unbeatable himself has left.