By Marc Pitzke in Miami
John McCain's election parties tend to be rather dull, and those who attend head for the door early. This time, though, his campaign didn't cut any corners. They rented the biggest ballroom at one of Miami's most luxurious hotels. They laid out a spread with five varieties of cheese, sliced carrots, cauliflower and cocktail tomatoes. Hostesses offered empanadas and the sound of light jazz whispered in through the speakers.
And then they waited. For hours. For a short time, the belted out their rallying cry: "Mac is back! Mac is back!" But no one seemed quite confident enough to celebrate. The results had only just started to pour in.
"A head to head" race, reported CNN and Fox News, each broadcast onto a giant screen. At that moment, fewer than 10,000 votes divided McCain and Mitt Romney -- 10,000 votes somewhere between the swamps of the Everglades and the mansions of Palm Beach. Ten thousand votes that carry a far greater significance than just a Republican primary in the southern state of Florida.
But vote for vote, and precinct by precinct, Vietnam war hero McCain was able to expand his lead over Romney, the private equity magnate. Military against executives -- what is playing out here is a duel for the soul of the Republican Party.
Finally, at 9:10 p.m., two hours after the first polling station had closed, the tension finally dissolved. Thousands of cheering supporters filled the hall, screaming their lungs out, jumping up and down and triumphantly raising their McCain campaign posters as cameramen scrummed in front of the candidate. It was a narrow victory -- 36 percent for McCain to 31 percent for his rival Mitt Romney -- but in this state where the winner takes all the delegates, it was an important one.
"My Dear Friend Rudy"
McCain sprinted into the ballroom, looking decades younger than his 71 years and seeming to float, as if on Cloud Nine. His face, which in recent days has often appeared pale and sunken, was suddenly gleaming red, with a childlike smile, his feet tapping. He gave a big hug to Charlie Crist, Florida's tanned and popular governor, whose last-minute endorsement helped drive McCain to victory here.
For the maverick McCain, it was a triumph over those who try to conform to Republican expectations at all costs, over the master opportunists. It was a victory that has transformed the Republican race for the nomination from a muddle into a two-man race. Rudy Giuliani, the 9/11 friar's lantern was extinguished yesterday -- managing just 15 percent. Mike Huckabee, with 14 percent, is almost broke. And Ron Paul has become little more than an entertaining footnote.
It is now McCain versus Romney, though the latter is on the ropes after four defeats. And that despite the fact that he spent $30 million on TV ads in Florida -- five times the amount spent by the McCain campaign. Indeed, it seems that from now on it will be a lot harder to say it's possible to buy an election.
Insiders at McCain's cheese party whispered into their Blackberrys that Giuliani will drop out of the race on Wednesday and endorse McCain. "My dear friend Rudy," McCain said, promptly and full of praise, as he gave his victory speech. Giuliani is "an inspiration for me and millions of Americans." The invitation for an endorsement couldn't have been more obvious.
Victory in the "Sunshine Showdown"
In the end, the Florida primary -- in America's largest and most unpredictable swing state -- was far more important than just a stage in the election. It was the last major test before next week's "Super Tuesday," a quasi-nationwide primary, a day when Republicans in a total of 21 states (22 for Democrats) will vote for their candidate of choice.
It was also a litmus test for McCain, a test to see whether his victories in New Hampshire and South Carolina had been flukes or if he truly has leadership potential. It was also Romney's last real chance to push further ahead. As far as Giuliani goes, it was his only chance.
Now McCain will enter into the endgame as the frontrunner among Republicans. His victory in the "Sunshine Showdown," as the Wall Street Journal described it, "may not have reached landslide proportions, but it is sweet nonetheless," McCain told his supporters. Former White House spokesman Ari Fleischer was a bit more grandiose: "He crossed the bridge tonight."
It was the bridge to electability -- especially within his own party. Up until now he has been eschewed by a party establishment that doesn't consider him to be conservative enough and shudders when he shakes hands with Democrats, works together with Ted Kennedy or supports climate protection initiatives -- a weakness within the party that Romney tried to exploit at the last minute. Early Tuesday morning, the former Massachusetts governor dismissed McCain as a "liberal Democrat" at a gas station in West Palm Beach.
It was one of several myths that were finally dispelled on Tuesday. At the Florida primary, only registered Republicans were allowed to vote -- there were no independents or fickle Democrats like those who gave McCain a boost in New Hampshire and South Carolina.
And still, McCain won here and proved that he can unite the entire party behind him. "I'm as proud today to be a Republican conservative as I was then," McCain said, referring to his early career, when he championed the policies of Republican President Ronald Reagan. As if to shore up his conservative chops, he mentioned Reagan three times during his victory speech, evoking a president who was able to unite the different wings of the Republican Party like no other.
McCain won by using a clever campaign strategy, which managed to simultaneously prove his qualification for a campaign on a national scale. He concentrated his campaign tour throughout the Sunshine State on areas with a high percentage of veterans (who revere the former fighter pilot), of seniors (who feel an age-sympathy with the 71-year-old) and of Latinos (who appreciate his moderate immigration policies). He knew where the decisive votes were to be had.
Romney, who on Monday charter-jetted to six cities in 12 hours, was able to present himself as a financial guru in the hope that the voters, caught up in their fear of a recession, would prefer to put their trust in a multimillionaire rather than a soldier.
For Romney, it's really about an endgame now. It's finally starting to show here in Florida that his bottomless financial resources can't guarantee a victory. The defeat was close, but it was still a defeat because McCain will get all 57 Florida delegates on nomination day.
"Tonight, My Friends, We Celebrate!"
The second dramatic story of the evening was the final climax of Rudy Giuliani's long, slow-motion face flop. His strategy of ignoring the first primaries and betting it all on Florida was a fundamental miscalculation -- as his last, sad days of campaigning had already shown. So too was his decision to rely almost entirely on political cronies with no experience on the national stage to run his campaign. It was the last gasp of Giuliani's years spent exploiting Sept. 11 for political and financial gain.
The Democrats, of course, also held a vote yesterday -- at least pro forma. The party had declared the Florida primary irrelevant beforehand -- delegates from the state will not be attending the party convention as a penalty for moving its primary vote forward. The result was a vote without a campaign -- or, as Barack Obama's campaing manager David Plouffe joked on Tuesday, it was a pure "beauty contest."
Hillary Clinton "won" it, and she did so yesterday by committing the ultimate act of hypocrisy: After having declared that she would ignore Florida, she flew to a "victory party" in Davie, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, to ensure the people there that "your vote counts!"
But, it was far from an empty gesture. Clinton is hoping that, in the end, the votes of the Florida delegates could be considered should her race with Obama end in a tie. "We expect the delegates to be seated," Clinton's campaign chief Patti Solis Doyle said yesterday in a conference call with reporters explicitly convened for giving that statement.
And, so, even before Tuesday evening in Florida had come to an end, all eyes were turning toward next Tuesday. "Tonight, my friends, we celebrate," McCain yelled. "Tomorrow, it's back to work!"
Post to other social networks:
Stay informed with our free news services:
| All news from SPIEGEL International | Twitter | RSS |
| All news from World section | RSS |
© SPIEGEL ONLINE 2008
All Rights Reserved
Reproduction only allowed with the permission of SPIEGELnet GmbH
