McCain rally in Westbury

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(All photos by Jacqueline Hlavenka/The Chronicle)

Presidential Primaries 101

NBC Nightly News explains how complicated the process will be when 24 states will be voting on Super Tuesday:



(Video provided by Nightly.MSNBC.com)

Edwards drops out

Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) is dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination. His platform was populist in nature, and he decried the pressures on the middle class. But his consistent third-place finishes in Democratic primaries and caucuses led to the end of his candidacy.

UPDATE: Sen. Obama released a statement on Edwards' departure:

CHICAGO, IL - Senator Barack Obama released the following statement regarding John Edwards.

“John Edwards has spent a lifetime fighting to give voice to the voiceless and hope to the struggling, even when it wasn’t popular to do or covered in the news. At a time when our politics is too focused on who’s up and who’s down, he made a nation focus again on who matters – the New Orleans child without a home, the West Virginia miner without a job, the families who live in that other America that is not seen or heard or talked about by our leaders in Washington. John and Elizabeth Edwards have always believed deeply that we can change this – that two Americans can become one, and that our country can rally around this common purpose. So while his campaign may end today, the cause of their lives endures for all of us who still believe that we can achieve that dream of one America,” said Barack Obama.

McCain wins Florida primary, Rudy out tomorrow; Clinton wins, but earns no delegates

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is leaving the race for president after placing third in a primary he had said was a "must win." (Video provided by MSNBC.com)

By Kimberly Chin
Assistant News Editor

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) won the Florida Republican primary, beating Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) by five points, 36 percent to 31 percent, with 95 percent of precincts reporting, while Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) won a Democratic primary that awarded her no delegates.

McCain earned all 57 national convention delegates from the state and drove former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani from the race. Giuliani placed in third, earning 15 percent in a state he repeatedly said was a "must win," since he relied on a victory there to parlay momentum into the Super Tuesday contests, where more than 21 states will choose their Republican nominee.

"Our victory might not have met landslide proportions," McCain said at his victory rally, "but it's sweet nonetheless." McCain drew upon the conservative and senior voters in the state while Romney was able to scoop up the moderate and socially liberal voters.

Giuliani spent millions of dollars in Florida, campaigning there almost alone while the other candidates spent time competing in the other early primary states, including Iowa, Michigan and South Carolina. In his concession, he did not explicitly drop out of the race, but reports confirmed his departure minutes after he left the stage.

"We ran a campaign that was uplifting," he told his supporters.

Florida is a crucial state in the Republican primary having given the most delegates in a single state thus far. About 2 million voters turned out in Florida to vote in the Republican contest.

Exit polls show that the economy was the most important issue for Florida voters. McCain said that it is up to the government to not spend more than necessary pointing out the excessive money spent in wars overseas and have resulted in a "loss" to Americans.

Drawing from his military experience, he stressed the need for the government to secure the nation from "enemies foreign and domestic."

Romney also stressed the importance of the economy in his concession. "The economy is in my blood," he told Floridians; Romney was referring to his corporate background in the venture capital business. "Americans need a president in the White House that's actually had a job in the real world," Romney said.

"We are not going to change Washington by just sending the same people back just to sit in different chairs," said Romney. "Change will begin with us."

Gov. Mike Huckabee (R- Ark.) told his supporters in Florida he will be heading to California, suggesting that he still had high hopes for Super Tuesday, and he was staying in the race, despite placing fourth in the Florida primary.

Democratic voters took to the polls as well, despite being stripped of its national delegates because the state chose to hold its primary before the national party rules said it could. The candidates, as a result, agreed not to campaign in the state as well. Analysts deemed the primary a "beauty contest."

Clinton won the primary handily, getting 50 percent of the votes, with 94 percent of the precincts reporting. Illinois Sen. Barack Obama won 33 percent while Edwards picked up 14 percent of the vote. Clinton was the only Democrat to appear in Florida to address supporters there, and she did it after the polls closed.

“I could not come here to ask in person for your votes, but I am here to thank you for your votes today," she said. "I am thrilled to have had this vote of confidence that you have given me today, and I promise you I will do everything I can to make sure not only are Florida’s Democratic delegates seated, but Florida is in the winning column for the Democrats in 2008."

Both parties are now turning to Feb. 5, in which the candidates will be busy traversing the country trying to gain as much support from the 24 states participating in the primaries and caucuses as they can. Super Tuesday will be a make-or-break for many of the candidates, and it could indicate a clear frontrunner in close primary elections.

With the Florida win, McCain was very hopeful about his chances on Tuesday. "I'm confident we will succeed in this contest and in the bigger one against any one of the Democratic nominees," he said.

Obama wins by substantial margin in South Carolina

(Sen. Barack Obama defiantly delivers his victory speech in South Carolina. Video provided by MSNBC.com)

By Kimberly Chin
Assistant News Editor

Illinois Sen. Barack Obama dominated Sen. Hillary Clinton (N.Y.) in the South Carolina Democratic primary, winning 55 percent to a 26 percent, with 100 percent of precincts reporting on another Democratic primary with record turnout. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards was right behind Clinton with 17 percent in the polls.

The Palmetto state victory has reinvigorated Obama's campaign after consecutive second-place finishes behind Clinton, who has won New Hampshire and Nevada. Obama also scored a major endorsement from Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy.

Obama's victory speech was defiant in the face of week-long attacks from Clinton's campaign, including from former President Bill Clinton himself.

"After four great contests in every corner of this country, we have the most votes, the most delegates, and the most diverse coalition of Americans we've seen in a long, long time," he said. "They are young and old, rich and poor. They are black and white, Latino and Asian. They are Democrats from Des Moines and Independents from Concord; Republicans from rural Nevada and young people across this country who've never had a reason to participate until now.

"And in nine days, nearly half the nation will have the chance to join us in saying that we are tired of business-as-usual in Washington, we are hungry for change, and we are ready to believe again," he said.

The record turnout in South Carolina was the fourth-straight Democratic contest with more voters than ever before; more than 530,000 voters turned out. Obama got more votes today than the entire Democratic turnout in 2004, said Howard Fineman, a Newsweek political analyst, on MSNBC.

Clinton decided not to deliver a formal concession speech, instead moving immediately beyond the contest to campaign in Tennessee. Instead, she released a statement, which said she had called Obama to congratulate him, thanking her supporters in South Carolina and calling for her campaign to "turn our attention to the millions of Americans who will make their voices heard" in the twenty-four states that will vote on Feb. 5.

Edwards delivered a concession speech in which he announced that he would continue to look to Feb. 5 to gain the support he needed, and told the low- and middle-income Americans that their voices will be heard in his campaign on Super Tuesday. "We will speak for you and fight for you," he told his supporters.

His third place standing came despite a bounce in the polls after a bruising debate on Tuesday, Jan. 22, in which Obama and Clinton leveled personal attacks against each other. South Carolina is Edwards' birth state, and he invested heavily in the state, in an attempt to show credibility as a native-Southerner.

Exit polls indicated a huge amount of support from black voters for Obama. He received 80 percent of their votes, compared with 18 percent for Clinton and 1 percent for Obama. The three candidates split white voters almost equally, but Clinton took the most with slightly more than 30 percent.

Obama emphasized the diversity of his support. "I did not travel around his state and see a white South Carolina or a black South Carolina," Obama told the cheering audience in South Carolina. "I saw South Carolina."

Kucinich drops out

Rep. Dennis Kucinich is ending his second long-shot run for the presidency, reports the Cleveland Plain Dealer , via Politico.com.

His candidacy was marked by low poll numbers, and his eventual dis-invitation to an NBC News debate, which led to a court battle settled in the final hours before the debate took place.

Thompson drops out

Sen. Fred Thompson (R-Tenn.), who announced his candidacy for President on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on the night the other Republican candidates at the time were debating, has dropped out of the race.

His campaign was dogged by allegations of laziness on the campaign trail, and he performed poorly in a contest his campaign said he needed to win--or at least perform well in-- in South Carolina.

The Thompson campaign issued a statement from the Senator announcing his withdrawal.