There were many things that contributed to the extreme disappointment in South Carolina. First, there were a lot of ignorant voters who did not carefully study the candidates and swallowed their lies, hook line and sinker; Second, South Carolina has received a large influx of northern transplants who are more liberal than their southern counterparts; Open primary with independent and democrat voters; and probably the biggest—no negative advertising on McCain. Romney didn’t challenge McCain in South Carolina and every one else was afraid to go negative. Also, there were so many candidates. The Rinos went for McInsane and the conservative voters split between Thompson, Huckabee and Romney.
Bottom line: The voters were not blatantly informed about McCain’s treachery and did little to learn about the candidate on their own. The media will feed the sheep the lies and people will believe them unless confronted with a a powerful truthful source.