Do-Or-Die In Dixie

South Carolina's primary is political ground zero in the Republican race for president.

Polls put George W. Bush and John McCain in a statistical tie heading into Saturday's primary in the Palmetto State.

At stake: Bush's front-runner status and McCain's viability as a popular insurgent.

Bush needs a victory in South Carolina after McCain's stunning win in New Hampshire. The Texas governor has spent $50 million of his campaign war chest and has about $20 million left. A win for Bush would enable him to show campaign donors who gave back when they thought he was a sure thing that yes, W. still means winner.

Victory in South Carolina is no less crucial for McCain. The Arizona senator must prove he is more than a one-state wonder if he is to have any chance of upsetting Bush.

On Thursday, Bush blasted McCain in Florence, S.C., for circulating a flier that says the governor's tax-cut plan would threaten Social Security. Waving the brochure, Bush said McCain "puts out stuff that's factually untrue."

"This is a man who says he's going to do one thing and does another," said Bush, referring to the senator's vow last week to end negative advertising.

"You can't have it both ways in the political process. You can't take the high horse and then claim the low road." he added.

In Spartanburg, S.C., McCain stuck to a lofty script, predicting that a weekend win in South Carolina would reverberate nationwide.

"If we win here, I don't see how we can be stopped," said the senator at a Veterans of Foreign Wars post. "A campaign ended in New Hampshire, but a great crusade began."

But McCain also laid the groundwork to spin a possible loss. The senator said if he loses on Saturday, he can go on at least until March 7. That's Super Tuesday, when more than a dozen states - California and New York among them - will hold their primaries.

McCain said the election was about "our obligation to veterans, to senior citizens in need of prescription drugs, our obligation to children. All of these things are part of an inclusive party, a party of Abraham Lincoln, of Teddy Roosevelt and of Ronald Reagan."

"That's what this is really about. So I view this campaign as sort of a seminal event for my party and this country."

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Bush, who has suggested Democrats are plotting to vote for McCain because they think he would be easier to beat in the general election, said he wasn't conceding crossover votes.

"I've earned the reputation in Texas for attracting Democrats," the governor said.

But here's one area where McCain and Bush agree: both campaigns say their polling shows the South Carolina race is a dead heat. Voter turnout will make the difference on Saturday.

Whatever the outcome, the two GOP rivals won't have much of a break. Next Tuesday, the fight for the GOP presidential nomination shifts north and west. That's when Republicans will hold primaries in McCain's home state of Arizona and Michigan, where the senator holds a slight edge in the polls.

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