McCain pulls out a close one?

Early on the exit polls in Arizona showed our home senator was having problems in his back yard.  Exit polls had the race tied between John McCain and Mitt Romney at 36%-36%.   With news reports saying McCain was in a race for his home state conservative blogs went on the attack.  National and state blogs were quick to say this could be his unraveling.  Even I had a blistering piece ready to post about McCain’s small win in his home state.

Then something strange happened, we started getting actual results.  As the results rolled in became clear that the race was not nearly as close as everyone had thought.  All the talk about Mitt Romney’s showing in Arizona, after the dust cleared John McCain actually did 7% better in Romney’s home state (41%), than Romney did in McCain’s home state (34%).

Was it the decisive and commanding victory McCain wanted?  Probably not.  But it was a win and killed the headline conservatives wanted tomorrow morning.  McCain’s challenge now will be going to the Conservative PAC on Thursday and selling himself as a candidate they can accept and get behind.

The real shock may have been on the Democratic side in Arizona.  Over the last week Barack Obama had been on the march in Arizona.  He had picked up the endorsement of a popular Governor in Janet Napolitano, he had picked up the political machine of Congressman Raul Grijavla and he was closing in the polls and closing hard.  When he drew over 12,000 people to see him speak earlier in the week it appeared he was going to make it interesting if not win outright. 

When the votes were actually counted though, Hillary Clinton won by a margin that was more comfortable then she probably thought it would be.  Kudos have to go out to Rick Ridder and the team he put together for Clinton.  Rick is a true professional who knows how to run a political machine.  That political machine was just to much on election day and they were able to drive their voters out and hold off the charging Obama.