The Big MAC Strikes Back! John McCain Wins Florida GOP Primary to Take the Lead into Super Tuesday

With more than half of precincts already reported, the major news outlets such as CNN and MSNBC have already declared John McCain the Republican primary winner, beating rival Mitt Romney by four percentage points. McCain received roughly 35% of the vote while Romney received 31% of the vote.

The results in Florida are a huge disappointment for New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani who puts his entire campaign hopes into the Florida primary. He finished a distant third in the race with 15% of the vote, followed by Mike Huckabee.

According to polling data in Florida, the economy was the top issue for voter concerns, followed by terrorism, the Iraq War and immigration. Although the issue of the economy played well for Romney whose strongest issue is the economy, John McCain benefited from a voter body that was 1/3 over the age of 65. John McCain has been and continues to poll with high voting percentages in favor of his candidacy in the senior citizen age group.

Florida's GOP primary contained 57 delegates being awarded to McCain, the largest state primary thus far. In the GOP winner take all system for each state, McCain gets all 57 delegates while his rivals get nothing. The win in Florida gives McCain a tremendous boost as he takes a lead in delegates over Romney. Originally, Florida was supposed to have 114 delegates but were penalized by the GOP for moving their primary ahead of Super Tuesday.

In a report on MSNBC and CNN, Rudy Giuliani's campaign was in talks with the McCain campaign about dropping out in which Giuliani would endorse McCain and help his campaign in California. Giuliani was at one point the party front runner and has fallen a far way from the top. Huckabee has also fallen quite far after winning the Iowa Caucus. He hasn't won anything since then. Super Tuesday will come down to Mitt Romney vs. John McCain with McCain having all the momentum after winning South Carolina and now Florida.