Update: Romney gains in Illinois. With Rudy out of the race McCain moves up 3%, Romney up 6%, and Huckabee up 5% in IL. The state is not winner take all there are delegates available to others beyond the top winner.

Despite Senator McCain’s clear win in Florida Governor Romney is still in the race. Romney had a strong performance in Wednesday’s debate. Romney is still in the top tier of the Rasmussen daily tracking poll. The former governor is still competitive in California. Like Florida, California is a closed primary state but it is not winner take all. The delegates are assigned by each congressional district, making a close second still valuable.

Two of Rudy’s strengths were his stand on the threat of Islamic extremism and his executive experience. At first glance it seems like McCain is a good fit with Rudy on the terror threat but did Rudy want to close Guantanamo and ban waterboarding? McCain wants to do both, sending the terrorist in Guantanamo to Kansas. Does he also assign an ACLU lawyer to each one of them? McCain has been very strong on the war in Iraq but his views on Guantanamo and enhanced interrogation seem at odds with Giuliani’s strengths.

Rudy’s other strong point was his executive experience in cleaning up New York City. McCain has no similar record running such a large organization, public or private. Will voters attracted to America’s Mayor go for a 25-year member of congress? We’ll have a much better idea on February 6th but my guess is that not all of them will go for McCain.

What was done to McCain while he was held prison in Viet Nam was sadistic and probably of very little intelligence value to his captors. Waterboarding has been documented as valuable in saving lives when used against high value terrorists. Yes, terrorists fighting out of uniform in a battle where innocent civilians are targeted. Does a president McCain really want to extend Geneva Convention protection to terrorists?

While on the topic of waterboarding I have a question. If it is so brutal why do people let themselves be subjected to it all the time and post the videos on YouTube?

Waterboarding demonstration on MSNBC
Longer version of the MSNBV video
Public demonstration of waterboarding in DC
CodePink does a public waterboarding for Feinstein
Public demonstration at ACLU
Public demonstration at Berkeley
Redneck waterboarding

Update: Michell Malkin covers the endorsement.

There is no doubt that McCain’s win in Florida was big. The state was hotly contested and his 5% margin was convincing. I do not mean to sound like on of our other writers, who we understand will be taking a few days off to “adjust his attitude”, but there is one interesting thing I noted in the Florida numbers. The top Republican vote getter is still in the mid-30s. With 7 candidates in the race at the time McCain won New Hampshire with 37% of the vote. Eleven days latter McCain scored another big win in South Carolina with 33% of the vote. Yesterday, with 5 candidates in the race, McCain won Florida with 36% of the vote. That is 1% less than he won on January 8 with two more candidates in the primary.

I am not predicting that someone besides McCain will win the nomination. Rather I am pointing out that while McCain is clearly the frontrunner he has a little more work to do before he locks up the nomination. Giuliani has all but withdrawn and endorsed McCain. Interestingly Huckabee looks like he is staying in. He is ahead in several Southern states and knows how to operate without much money.

The big question is where does Romney go from here. He has a few safe states on February 5th. Does he pour in the funds to compete in other states? At one time we thought Arizona might have been competitive. At this point, with winner take all, I would not spend much money on the state. That leaves some states like California with a winner take all by district and other western and mid-west states with caucus meetings. The primary is not over but it is getting there slowly.