Sen. John McCain pulled off a huge win in Florida last night beating Gov. Mitt Romney 36% to 31%.  The win makes McCain the clear front runner in the GOP.  Rasmussen today is reporting that McCain would beat both Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama in a head to head match up.  McCain would beat Hillary, 48 to 40 and beat Obama 47 to 41.

There are a couple of other interesting notes from last night’s Florida primary:

Mayor Rudy Giuliani will drop out of the race and endorse McCain later this afternoon.  Giuliani said if he wasn’t running for president he would be supporting John McCain.  Could this bring a McCain-Giuliani ticket?

Florida is a closed primary state that doesn’t allow independents to cast a ballot unless they re-register as either a Democrat or a Republican.  McCain wasn’t supposed to be able to win a closed primary state.  He did.

McCain won the following groups of Republican voters:

Liberal and moderate Republicans

Hispanic Republicans

Voters over the age of 60

When the economy is the #1 issue, McCain beat Romney (40% to 32%)

When the Iraq war is the #1 issue, McCain beat Romney (45% to 19%).  However, when terorrism was the #1 issue Romney bested McCain (29% to 26%).  Romney was also the choice for voters picking illegal immigration as their #1 issue (43% to 25%).

Voters at the Florida polls were asked about their feelings on the Bush administration.  They rated Bush in four categories: enthusiastic, satisfied, dissatisfied, and angry.  Republican voters who were dissatisfied and angry with the Bush Administration overwhelmingly chose McCain.  Republican voters who had a more negative opinion of the economy also chose McCain over Romney.  Bush fatigue has extended to much of the Republican party as well and McCain has capitalized on that.

Based on the Florida exit polls either the conservative Republicans stayed home or are outnumbered by moderates.  Romney won voters who described themselves as very conservative over McCain.  But, those voters only made up 27%.  Moderates and self-described “somewhat conservative” voters made up 62% of the electorate.

Here is the run down:

Somewhat liberal (8% of voters), McCain-55%, Romney 24%

Moderate (28% of voters), McCain 43%, Romney 21%

Somewhat conservative (34% of voters), McCain 35%, Romney 32%

Very conservative (27% of voters), Romney 44%, McCain 21%

Romney’s support lies with conservatives; McCain’s with the middle.  It’s a battle for control of the Republican party.  Super Tuesday is less than a week away.  But, can anything stop the Straight Talk Express?