There were three different winners on Saturday in the 2008 Presidential race, as Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mitt Romney all notched victories in battles in Nevada and South Carolina.

But while the presidential race got a little more focused after those contests, not much was really settled following a brusing week of campaigning in both parties.

For John McCain, his win over a strong Mike Huckabee in South Carolina was more about overcoming the demons of his nasty 2000 primary defeat to then Governor George W. Bush, echoes of which were heard over the past week.

"It took us awhile," McCain told supporters, "but what's eight years among friends."

While Mitt Romney won more delegates by taking the Nevada caucuses, McCain gains maybe a bit more momentum for his presidential bid, though Huckabee showed he was no pushover, saying this race is "far, far from over."

But there is recent political history to consider, where every winner of the GOP primary in South Carolina since 1980 has gone on to win the Republican nomination for President.

Next stop for the GOP is Florida, but by no means is it going to be delivered to McCain because of his win in South Carolina.

Along with Huckabee and Romney, Rudy Giuliani has been prowling the Sunshine State for weeks, waiting to finally get his shot at the 2008 race that he has sidestepped for weeks.

Clinton, Obama Both Win Nevada

Yeah, that headline doesn't make much sense, but it is what seems to have happened. Hillary Clinton won the Nevada caucuses in the raw vote, but Barack Obama took one more delegate than Clinton.

Still, the Clinton people felt like they were the real winners, especially after Obama had secured a very high profile union endorsement and after the courts had allowed caucuses to go on in a group of casinos on the Las Vegas Strip.

The exit poll numbers showed that Clinton again did very well among women, and also won a big chunk of the Hispanic vote. That could prove very important in upcoming primaries.

While Clinton and Obama could both proclaim that they had done well in Nevada, John Edwards could not. In fact, Edwards was not just in third, but he was far back in third, getting less than 4 percent of the caucus vote.

While Edwards is expected to do better in South Carolina this week, where he won the primary four years ago, showings like that will only focus the media attention even more on the race between Obama and Clinton, instead of a three-way battle involving Edwards.

Next Up: The Dems in South Carolina

The race between Obama and Clinton got rough in Nevada, and I would bet it will be rough and tumble this week in South Carolina as well.

On its face, South Carolina would seem to be better ground for Obama, with the large black voting population, and the possibility that Edwards and Clinton will split much of the white vote.

Remember how race became such a big issue in the past week? It will be back, since it is sort of hard to ignore that Monday is the federal holiday for Martin Luther King Junior.

We just saw how bare knuckled the GOP primary was, with more controversial attacks on John McCain, much like eight years ago. I don't expect the same thing for the Democrats this week, but I do anticipate an "aggressive" type of campaign.

The GOP Focuses on Florida

The Democrats are going to get more attention this week in the press I would predict, mainly because their primary is on Saturday, while the Florida primary is not until the following Tuesday, January 29.

But even if the spotlight is in Columbia, Charleston and Myrtle Beach rather than Tallahasse, Orlando and Miami, Florida is going to be buzzing with GOP candidates and activity.

Most people think of the Sunshine State as a big haven for Midwesterners on the southwest coast and refugees from New York and New Jersey along the southeast coast.

But a lot of Florida still has echoes of the "real" South and should prove to be fertile ground for Mike Huckabee. I am going to be very interested to see how he does in the polls down there.

McCain will certainly have natural support amongst veterans and around some of the military bases in the state, especially in Jacksonville and parts of the Florida Panhandle.

As for Giuliani, if he does not win, the media is going to have a field day asking him if he's going to leave the race, and that is not the message you want as we rush to Super Tuesday.

And I cannot ignore Mitt Romney, who has been near the top in the Florida polls as well. He is the leader in delegates on the GOP side and has been on the air a lot in the last year.

He certainly has the money - whether his own, or money that he's raised - to be very active. He surprised me by winning so many evangelical votes in Michigan, but could not repeat that in South Carolina.

We'll see next week if he can change his fortunes in the Sunshine State.

I will be in South Carolina later this week and then in Florida. What a fun time we are going to have.