Drop In, Tune In, Turn Out

In real estate, it's location, location, location. In politics, it's turnout, turnout, turnout. In a close election, like Saturday's Republican primary in South Carolina, how many voters show up at the polls can make all the difference. John McCain needs as many voters to show up as possible.

McCain's aides note that the turnout in 1996's Republican primary here was 276,000 voters. They say if they can get 350,000 Saturday, their man will win. That's because McCain is counting on independent and Democratic voters to propel him past the Republican faithful likely to vote for Bush. And beyond that, he wants to show he has crossover appeal, which any Republican candidate will need in the fall election. As Lindsay Graham, one of two South Carolina Congressmen who've endorsed McCain, says, "I'm a Republican who's tired of losing."

At every event Friday, McCain and Graham and Rep. Marshall Sanford exhorted the enthused crowds who cheer the candidate to make sure they actually get out and vote for him.

At the Nascar Cafe, where McCain wore a decorated leather jacket and stood before a glittering panoply of neon, searchlights and racing car paraphernalia, he repeated the famous old line of Chicago's Mayor Daley: Vote early and often.

"It's going to be exceedingly close tomorrow," Rep. Mark Sanford warned a crowd in Litchfield. "John can't talk to 3-and-a-half million voters in the next 24 hours. So I want you to talk to your friends. Talk to ten friends, twenty friends, talk to 100 friends!"

Some of those in the crowd will. Ed Morrow of Litchfield just decided Friday to vote for McCain, and he says he'll spread the world. "Oh, yeah. I'll probably carry about ten votes with me." And Ann Walker, also a Litchfield resident, said she'd get all her family to vote for McCain, "and I've got a big family." Will McCain win? "Sure! If I get all my friends, and everybody else does too."

McCain says he'll win too. And that's just the beginning. "Once we win, they are never, ever gonna be able to stop us."

Mike Murphy, McCain's media consultant, feels the same; he's as optimistic about Michigan and Arizona as he is about South Carolina. "A week from now," he said Friday as the Nascar crowd swarmed forward to shake hands with McCain, "people will be wondering if George Bush can make it through the weekend."