At first glance at a General Motors auto plant in Lordstown, Ohio, on Friday, McCain’s push for fuel-efficient cars was not just about the cars, it was about the workers — blue-collar voters.

They are the kind of voters who Clinton won in the Democratic primary and who McCain wants badly.

• Young voter turnout was nearly triple this mirrors the huge turnout in Iowa the 2004 numbers. Could the increased interest in this election cycle be tied to a desire not to return to the Clinton years?
• Obama won an estimated 78 percent of the black vote, according to exit polls. This will prove to be a major factor throughout the February 5 voting.
• Total turnout for Democrats in their primary was greater than the turnout for the Republican primary in this state, which is one of the most loyally Republican in the nation. This does not bode well for the GOP candidates. The desire for change from the current administration leaves the Republican nominee fighting with one arm tied behind their back.

The surprise of the night was Giuliani failed to draw any clear differences between himself and his other leading rivals.  If Giuliani was still considered to be the frontrunner his performance tonight would have been adequate, but considering what was at stake for him personally he didn’t break away from the pack like he needed to do. 

Tonights report card:

Mitt Romney A-

John McCain B

Mike Huckabee B-

Rudy Giuliani C+

Ron Paul C+

Let me know your thoughts.  What are your reactions to tonights debate?

You see the stakes couldn’t be higher than they are tonight.   Should John McCain go on to win Florida it is game over for Rudy Giuliani and will narrow this campaign to a two candidate race–between McCain and Romney–with McCain having the definite edge.

Don’t expect the fireworks of Sunday night’s Democratic presidential debate, but tonight will have the pressure that no previous GOP debate will have.  Look for Romney and Giuliani to talk taxes and McCain to try and couch every question in national defense and steer clear of the economy–his Achilles heel.

Thompson’s fate was sealed last Saturday in the South Carolina primary, when he finished third in a state that he had said he needed to win.

In the statement, Thompson did not say whether he would endorse any of his former rivals. He was one of a handful of members of Congress who supported Arizona Sen. John McCain in 2000 in his unsuccessful race against George W. Bush for the party nomination.

“A 50-seat plane for 15 people doesn’t make sense,” Huckabee said, noting that his press coverage has thinned since his Iowa caucus victory was followed by losses to Arizona Sen. John McCain in New Hampshire and South Carolina and losses to Mitt Romney in Nevada, Wyoming and Michigan.

“I don’t want to abandon Florida yet,” Huckabee told reporters Monday on a late-night flight from Orlando to Atlanta, where he planned to campaign Tuesday. “We have not come to the conclusion that Florida is out of play.”

Huckabee is instead focusing his efforts on other February  5th  states Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee, Missouri Arkansas, and Oklahoma where his core of evangelical support is highest.

Hillary Clinton and John Edwards met privately backstage following a very contentious Democratic presidential debate in this coastal city, sources with both campaigns confirm to CNN.

The meeting took place in the Edwards campaign green room.

One of the sources said the meeting happened by chance and the conversation consisted of light chatter. The source added that Clinton did jokingly take a jab at Edwards about his beating up on her during the debate. In fact, the real fireworks were between Clinton and Barack Obama.

Even in the superheated atmosphere of their fight for the party’s nomination, the statements and exchanges between Clinton and Obama were unusually acrimonious and personal. The debate came as the two campaigns continued to complain about dirty politics and disenfranchisement of voters in last Saturday’s Nevada caucuses.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama accused former President Bill Clinton of distorting his words as the Democratic race in South Carolina heated up on Monday. Obama, who was edged out by the ex-president’s wife Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Saturday caucuses in Nevada, had harsh words for Bill Clinton, who is beloved in many Democratic circles including among many blacks, who could be key to a win in South Carolina’s weekend primary.

The former president “has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling” by making statement that are not supported by facts, Obama said in an interview broadcast Monday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”

Once again, Mr. Huckabee failed to achieve significant support outside his evangelical base. Only 1 in 7 non-evangelicals voted for him, placing him behind not just Mr. McCain but Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney. He finished a close second overall only because he won more than 2 out of 5 evangelical voters, who made up 60% of South Carolina’s primary turnout. And he pandered to his base, too, running TV ads proclaiming himself a “Christian leader.” …

This repeats a pattern seen in other states. In Iowa, where evangelicals also were 60% of the electorate, Mr. Huckabee won but carried the votes of only 13% of non-evangelicals. In three states with more secular Republican electorates–New Hampshire, Michigan and Nevada–he has won between 4% and 8% of non-evangelicals, trailing even fringe candidate Ron Paul.