Net Results

The Associated Press and multiple networks have called the South Carolina Republican primary for Arizona Sen. John McCain. It's an outcome that provides him with a reviving win after following his Jan. 8 win in New Hampshire with losses to ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in the Jan. 15 Michigan primary and Saturday afternoon's Nevada caucuses.

But some caution is needed in assessing how big a boost the win will provide McCain, who is winning the state with fewer votes and a smaller vote share than he received in losing to George W. Bush in the key 2000 Republican presidential primary.

A win is a win, and McCain avoided the kind of devastating setback that stanched the momentum he had built by beating Bush in New Hampshire's 2000 primary.

But unlike that 2000 race, in which he faced a single strong candidate presumed to be the party's national front-runner, McCain ran Saturday in a jumbled contest in which six other significant candidates competed for votes, and three of them besides himself took double-digit percentages.

The vote totals speak loudly to the point. In 2000, McCain received nearly 240,000 votes, 42 percent of the total, and was viewed as having suffered a devastating defeat to Bush (who had 53 percent). Tonight, with 91 percent of precincts reporting, McCain had about 134,000 Republican votes, 33 percent of the total, and will claim what undoubtedly will be spun as a big comeback victory.

All told, today';s events lent no more clarity to the no-clear-favorite Republican presidential contest, with Romney winning easily and McCain doing poorly in Nevada, and McCain winning a more narrow victory over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Romney doing poorly in South Carolina.