Past South Carolina GOP Primary Winners (ContributorNetwork)

Since the 1980 launch of South Carolina's Republican primary, state voters have consistently picked the Republican nominee. In two-thirds of contested primaries, that candidate went on to win the national election. With all eyes on South Carolina this week as Saturday's primary approaches, here are the highlights of past races there.

2008: John McCain

Sen. John McCain won South Carolina with the lowest percentage of votes ever amassed by a Republican primary winner there, 33.2 percent. Mike Huckabee nipped at his heels with 29.8 percent of the vote. In the general election, McCain claimed 54 percent of the Palmetto State vote, according to NPR, but that wasn't sufficient for victory. Ultimately McCain collected 173 electoral votes to Barack Obama's 365, after 53,343,671 voters pulled the lever for him. Obama's tally was 66,882,230, CNN noted.

2000: George W. Bush

There was a 12-point spread between George W. Bush and McCain in 2000, with Bush taking 53.4 percent of the primary vote. This race had the highest turnout in state Republican primary history, with 573,101 voters casting a ballot, according to SCGOP records. Bush went on to become a two-term president. Bush easily won the South Carolina vote in the 2000 general election, along with that of 29 other states; he squeaked into office with a mere 271 electoral votes v. Al Gore's 267, despite Gore winning the popular vote with 51,003, 926 votes to Bush's 50,460,110.

1996: Bob Dole

1996 was one of two occasions when the South Carolina Republican primary winner did not go on to take the presidency. Sen. Bob Dole readily beat contender Pat Buchanan, with 45.1 percent of the primary vote to Buchanan's 29.2 percent. Turnout that year, 276,741, was less than half of what it would be in 2000. Democrat Bill Clinton won the general election with 49.23 percent of the popular vote to Dole's 40.72 percent, US Election Atlas noted. Reform candidate H. Ross Perot drained off 8.4 percent of the popular vote in that election, much of which might otherwise have gone to the Republican nominee. Dole did win South Carolina in the general election, with 49.89 percent of the vote.

1992, 1988: George H.W. Bush

George H.W. Bush took the South Carolina primaries by storm in 1988 and 1992. In 1988, he wiped out Bob Dole, with 49 percent of the vote to Dole's 21 percent. When he went up against Buchanan in 1992, the vote was more skewed, with Bush taking 67 percent to Buchanan's 26 percent. As the ultimate victor in the 1988 general election, Bush easily maintained his support in South Carolina. 1988 saw a lopsided electoral victory for Bush with 79.2 percent of the electoral vote going to him v. 20.6 percent for Democratic challenger Mike Dukakis. The popular vote was considerably closer, 53.37 percent to 45.65 percent. On his re-election bid, Bush lost to Bill Clinton but maintained his South Carolina support in the general election.

1980: Ronald Reagan

In the first ever Republican primary race in South Carolina, former California governor Ronald Reagan faced off against former Texas governor John Connally. Connally was a turncoat Democrat and staunch supporter of disgraced president Richard M. Nixon. He won 30 percent of the South Carolina 1980 primary vote to Reagan's 55 percent, SCGOP reflects. Reagan handily beat his Democratic challenger incumbent president Jimmy Carter in the general election, with the US Election Atlas showing his voter support at 50.75 percent to Carter's 41.01 percent. The electoral landslide gave Reagan a whopping 90.9 percent of the vote, with all but five states and Washington, D.C., going blue.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120118/pl_ac/10850133_past_south_carolina_gop_primary_winners

gazelle gazelle pumpkin carving patterns pumpkin carving patterns lizzie borden lizzie borden 20/20