[Vigilanteman]

All other things being equal, I would be favorably disposed to support a candidate who announced he (or she) was skipping the dog and pony shows in Iowa and New Hampshire and going straight to South Carolina to begin the campaign.

Both Iowa and New Hampshire have a vastly overinflated sense of importance.

Both are pissant states.

Both allow independents and RINOs to skew their results. And there will be more of them this year with no Democrat contest.

Both are full of social conservatives who love economic populism like ethanol subsidies (in the case of Iowa) or economic conservatives who love giving the finger to social conservatives (in the case of New Hampshire).

[conservativebuckeye]

Ask Rudy Giuliani how that strategy worked. Granted he put his eggs in Florida rather than South Carolina, but there are similarities. I think that South Carolina and Florida are the two most important primary states, but a candidate almost has to have a top 2 finish in Iowa and/or New Hampshire to win one of those states.