转载Times：Whitehouse2008

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John McCain has edged out Mike Huckabee to win the Republican primary in South Carolina - where his previous presidential campaign came off the rails eight years ago.

Supporters hailed his narrow victory by a margin of 33 to 30 percent in the Palmetto state as the turning point in a Republican race which has been shrouded in a fog of confusion with three previous contests this month throwing up three different winners.

Having seen his campaign almost collapse into bankruptcy last summer before storming back to win in New Hampshire and now South Carolina, Mr McCain now has a credible claim to be the national frontrunner.

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But he heads on to the Florida primary on January 29 braced for another tight fight against Mitt Romney, who strolled to a comfortable win in the Nevada caucuses, as well as Mr Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani.

Mr McCain will savour his victory in South Carolina, in which he lost an infamously bitter battle with George Bush in 2000 after being smeared with false allegations that he had fathered an illegitimate black child.

This time the contest was not scarred with the same level of negative and underhand tactics, a point highlighted by Mr Huckabee in his concession speech. "I would rather be where I am than have won it with the dishonesty...by attacking someone else," he said.

The Baptist preacher and former Arkansas governor, who won in Iowa with the support of Christian conservatives, fell just short in South Carolina even though 58 per cent of those voting described themselves as evangelicals.

He had confidently predicted victory earlier this week and may now struggle to stay in the top-tier of candidates. "We got awful close," said Mr Huckabee in a speech to supporters in Columbia, before adding: "The process is far, far from over. The path to the White House is not ending here tonight."

Mr Romney's victory in Nevada, coming on top of a largely overlooked win in Wyoming and a harder-fought triumph in Michigan earlier this week, has given him a healthy lead in delegates for the Republican presidential convention - despite his expensive disappointments in both Iowa and New Hampshire.

But his delegate total is dwarfed by those chosen by America's biggest states, beginning with Florida which votes on January 29, followed a week later by Super Tuesday's 21 primaries including the populous New York, California, Illinois and New Jersey.

He was already airborne on the way to the next contest in Florida when the result of the Nevada caucuses were