ANDREA SEABROOK, host:
Before we leave you tonight, we want to recap the day's events in politics -the Republican presidential primary in South Carolina, and the caucuses for both the parties in Nevada.
I'm joined by NPR's Ron Elving here in the studio, and NPR's Debbie Elliott who joins us from Columbia, South Carolina.
Let me start with you Debbie.
DEBBIE ELLIOTT: Okay.
SEABROOK: The polls closed nearly two hours ago. As far as we can see, it's close race between John McCain and Mike Huckabee. But I gather we should all be making more coffee here. Is this going to be a late night?
ELLIOTT: I don't know. I wish I could give you a winner, Andrea, but it doesn't look like we've got one just yet. It's a very, very close race right now. About half of the precincts have reported John McCain has a less than 10,000-vote advantage over former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee. It looks like about 3 percentage points at this moment. It's been fluctuating between 3 and 5 percent all night.
Now, Huckabee's people have been saying not worry, that he has strong support in the upstate region, in the northwest part of the state, and that some of those precincts have not reported. And that once they do, they expect him to be propelled into the lead. But right now, we just don't know.
SEABROOK: We're also used to insta-politics these days. It's sort of exciting not to know two hours polls close.
ELLIOTT: It is exciting.
SEABROOK: Yeah. We haven't heard from either McCain or Huckabee yet, but Fred Thompson came out. What did he have to say, Debbie?
ELLIOTT: You know, it was interesting. You know, right now, he and Romney are both sort of vying for third place, with half of the votes in. And he came out kind of with a long face, and he started thanking everybody - his wife, his kids, his mother, his grandkids. He said, you know, we will always be bound by a special bond, talking about his supporters and the people that he has been travelling with.
But then, he kind of launched into his stump speech. So you weren't quite sure what to make of it.
SEABROOK: A lot of reporters down there half-writing eulogies, it sounds like.
ELLIOTT: I think so.
SEABROOK: Ron, where did they - let's talk about the state we can't talk about today, Nevada. Hillary Clinton beat out Barack Obama despite his endorsement of an influential union there, the Culinary Workers Union. But what happened to John Edwards?
RON ELVING: Yes. He seems to be the forgotten man in Nevada.
SEABROOK: Mm-hmm.
ELVING: And in fact, it was really not possible for him to compete on an equal footing with the frontrunners in Nevada. It was not possible for him financially, and he just didn't have enough time because he had to concentrate so much of his time on South Carolina. That's coming up next Saturday for the Democrats.
Today, the Republicans - next week, the Democrats will be on the air again here on NPR, providing the exact same coverage for the Democratic side that we did for the Republican side in South Carolina. And that's a must-win for him. It's his birth state. He talks about it all the time. He really needs to revitalize his candidacy there. So, he had to keep his focus there.
He came to Nevada for the debate in Las Vegas on Tuesday night. He stuck around for a few events. But he didn't really have the money to have the number of ads or the spread of ads, the reach of ads that the two frontrunners in Nevada could. So today, he wound up with about 4 percent.
SEABROOK: So the Democrats go on to South Carolina next Saturday. After that, Florida, I believe, for both parties, is that right?
ELVING: January 29th.
SEABROOK: And then we'll be in to Super Duper Tuesday, when most people think of this thing will be - will have an idea of who the nominee should be on each side.
ELVING: We'll certainly have an awful lot more evidence. About half of the country will have voted.
SEABROOK: Hmm. NPR's Ron Elving and Debbie Elliott. Thank you so much.
ELVING: Thank you, Andrea.
ELLIOTT: My pleasure.
SEABROOK: You can get the latest news from today's presidential contests in Nevada and South Carolina by going to npr.org/elections. And you can read up at what's at stake in the presidential races ahead on our very cool interactive election map.