Romney gives up on SC, looks to Nevada

Fresh off his win in MI, but not encouraged by his low numbers in SC, Mitt Romney has decided to set his sights on Nevada (via Memeorandum):

Just a day after his big win in Michigan, Mitt Romney ceded South Carolina to his rivals.

“This is a state I’d expect that Sen. [John] McCain has pretty well wrapped up” Romney told reporters at the Sun City Hilton Head Retirement Center in Bluffton. “It would be an enormous surprise if he were unable to win here.”

Romney’s South Carolina strategy amounts to being politically half-pregnant. He doesn’t want to raise expectations in a state he likely can’t win, so he’s dashing off to Nevada midday Thursday to compete in the lightly contested caucuses there Saturday. But at the same time, he doesn’t want to offend his supporters in South Carolina.

Polls show Romney standing in solid third place in South Carolina, taking anywhere from 13 percent to 17 percent of the vote. But in Bluffton, Romney put himself in fourth place, noting that “even a strong fourth is better than what some of the other guys saw in Michigan last night.”

The SC primary is going to be a nailbiter, I think – but I believe McCain’s going to be the winner there over Huck. The NV caucus is up for grabs, and Romney has a shot at winning there. Will be interesting to see if anyone has any momentum going into FL.

In an effort to appeal to conservatives whose number one issue is illegal immigration, Huckabee is now shifting his stance on illegals by signing a pledge indicating that he would send all illegal aliens home. Oh, and it’s sunny and 92 degrees right now in Charlotte, NC.