That was the end of his campaign.
It was also in South Carolina that some veterans spoke up about him abandoning the POWs from Viet Nam.
His reaction at that time was similar to what Kerry is doing now. Screeching, screaming, and blaming Governor Bush. He intimidated those vets, but that is not going to work this time.
Exactly. On the American Atheist's website, there is a scathing article about the 2000 South Carolina GOP primary written immediately after Bush won. It was all about Fundamentalist this and Bob Jones University that and Hard Shift To The Right, blah blah blah. Not one word was mentioned about a "whisper campaign" impugning McCain.
The problem with that analysis is that only about 1/3 of the voters in the exit poll identified themselves as fundamentalist christians, and Bush's lead in that demographic wasn't insurmountably large.
The reason people voted for Bush: They wanted tax cuts and they thought he could win the general election.
The reason people voted for McCain: They thought he was the person with the BEST CHARACTER and the MOST MILITARY EXPERIENCE. However, VERY FEW people cared (then and now) about McCain's pet issue, which was Campaign Finance Reform. If McCain ran on lowering taxes and reducing the size of government, he would have won in a landslide.
Speaking of which, did you see Kerry's smear of the POWs who are featured in the latest ad?
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1196221/posts
PAUL GALANTI
JUDGEMENT: Called Conservative Christians "Sheep"
"They probably called their little followers. They vote on that one issue. They call them sheep. That's exactly what they are." -- Paul Galanti, McCain's Virginia campaign co-chairman, on the backlash by Virginia's conservative Christian voters after McCain's attacks Monday on the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Christian broadcaster Pat Robertson. AP, 2/29/00
This is one of the POWs they're now attacking for criticizing Kerry. How does that even make sense? The guy worked for McCain, not Bush, yet now he's criticizing Kerry. Doesn't that prove the SWVT's point?