McCain rebounds with South Carolina win

By Steve Holland - Analysis

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Republican U.S. presidential candidate John McCain's victory in South Carolina gave him important momentum in a wide-open race that is still anyone's guess as to who will come out the winner.

McCain, who at 71 would be the oldest person ever elected to a first presidential term, proved the second time's a charm in South Carolina, eight years after he lost the state to George W. Bush in a stinging defeat in which much mud-slinging left him with a bitter aftertaste.

"You know, it took us a while, but what's eight years among friends?" Arizona Sen. McCain wryly told cheering supporters.

South Carolina was the first contest in the South in the state-by-state race to decide which Republican will face the Democrats' choice in the November 4 election to succeed Bush in the White House in a year's time.

With a narrow victory over former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, McCain showed that his New Hampshire victory on January 8 was no fluke, six months after his candidacy was given up for dead when his campaign ran into money problems and he had to dump staff.

"There is a clear path now for McCain to be the nominee of the Republican Party, and he's got momentum and that is the biggest asset you can have in national politics," said Republican strategist Scott Reed.

McCain, who spent five years as a Vietnam prisoner of war, was helped in South Carolina by the state's large military community, campaigning hard on the theme of fighting Islamic radical extremism and vowing to get Osama bin Laden if he has to follow him to the "gates of hell."

Written off months ago by his support for the unpopular Iraq war, the relative success of the U.S. troop build-up in Iraq that he strongly supported has helped his resurgence.