McCain wins straw poll
John McCain won tonight's Spartanburg, South Carolina straw poll in a squeaker: McCain 164, Giuliani 162, Duncan Hunter 158, Sam Brownback 85, Mitt Romney 80, Newt Gingrich 33 [via write-in, according to CNN], Mike Huckabee 21, Tom Tancredo 10, John Cox and Ron Paul received 4, Condi Rice 2 [via write-in, according to CNN]. Jim Gilmore and Tommy Thompson with 1, and some other guy, identified only as "Sanders," also received 1.
The big story here is, of course, Rep. Duncan Hunter's surprising third place showing, especially against better positioned - and funded - candidates like Brownback and Romney. Hunter is going to turn some heads in this race because he is a trade hawk. He could position himself as the Pat Buchanan of 2008. The top tier candidates, except maybe Giuliani, have clear free trade positions. Hunter is the only one who has voted against NAFTA and GATT/WTO. Conservative working class folks and Reagan Democrats in South Carolina, who are getting hammered by cheap imports from China, are going to remember this come Election Day.

Speaking of Buchanan, here is a recent column he released about NAFTA: ["Free Trade and Funny Math"].

Economic nationalism is the policy of rising powers, free trade the policy of declining powers. For great powers have ever regarded trade as an arena of struggle in the clash of nations. It is no accident all four presidents who made it to Mount Rushmore were protectionists.

This should be a lesson to all presidential candidates but it will be lost on most of them.