How did McCain win in a supposedly conservative party?

Most Republicans are conservatives, right? Then how did McCain win in Florida’s closed primary? Here’s the key to the outcome in Florida. According to the exit polls, a majority of Florida Republican voters, 62 percent, identify themselves as conservative, and Romney carried 37 percent of them compared to 27 percent for McCain. But among the 28 percent of Republican voters who identified themselves as moderate, McCain beat Romney by almost two to one: 40 to 22 percent. Among the 11 percent of Republican voters who called themselves liberal, McCain beat Romney by 46 percent to 25 percent.

So there you have it. Though conservatives are a solid majority of Republican voters, and though Romney won among them, he won by only 10 percent, while McCain carried the smaller moderate and liberal contingent by about 20 percent. That difference carried McCain to an overall five point victory.

What this indicates is that McCain is so popular among the moderate and liberal minority of the Republican party that he can carry the party with their support. If this continues, he will effectively end the Republican party as a conservative party, which of course has been his aim all along, as well as that of Giuliani and the moderate Republicans and the liberal media and the neocons.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 29, 2008 10:51 PM | Send