Last night as John McCain took to the stage to give his concession speech in South Carolina, he was interrupted, by the winner of the Michigan primary Mitt Romney. Television coverage broke from McCain to Romney breaking what is typical protocol on election night where the winner allows those who lost the chance to speak.

From the New York Times:

Some McCain aides were taken aback that their speech was pre-empted, and said that the McCain campaign manager, Rick Davis, had called the Romney campaign and told them that Mr. McCain was about to speak. “Perhaps it was an accident,’’ said a senior McCain adviser, “but if it wasn’t, it was classless.”

The ill-will between the McCain and Romney camps was evident earlier in the night.

Before the race was called, Steve Schmidt, an adviser to the McCain campaign, told reporters gathered here that, “Mitt Romney has an amazing capacity that many of us hold in awe to be able to look anyone in the eye and tell them that the blue sky is red, that the yellow sun is pink, but at the end of the day, in a presidential contest, voters want someone who will tell them the truth.’’

Though everyone will claim it was a simple mix-up, which it probably was, one thing is for certain. A lot of bad blood is being spilled in this campaign and with the Republican race being hotly contested, things are only going to heat up.

During an appearance yesterday on Meet the Press Senator Hillary Clinton cited media reports to suggest Senator Obama’s campaign has been distorting statements by herself and her husband to give the impression that they were fueled by racial insensitivity. Clinton demanded that these statements be put into context so they could be shown as attacks against Obama’s comparison between himself, John Kennedy and Martin Luther King as well as his record on the Iraq War and not an attack on his race as some have seen them. Clinton again charged that Senator Obama has not maintained a consistent position on the Iraq war and maintained that it will take a record of achievement in creating and moving forward legislation and not just speeches to create societal and governmental change.

Yesterday Senator Obama responded to these charges. On the charge that his campaign was distorting her comments he said, “I am baffled by that statement by the senator.” He also added:

She made an ill advised statement about Dr. King suggesting that Lyndon Johnson had more to do with the Civil Right Acts. I did not make the statement. I haven’t commented on the statement. For them to suggest that we’re injecting race as a consequence of a statement she made that we haven’t commented on is pretty hard to figure out. Maybe you can tell me and explain to me how we distorted her statement.”

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After suggestions by some in the media of a racial element in pre-NH polling and the suggestion by Obama supporter Jesse Jackson Jr. that Hillary Clinton did not shed tears for Katrina victems, race as a political issue on the campaign trail is now becoming a central issue and tactic in South Carolina and the Democratic nomination.

The movement so far began with some comments made by the Clinton camp before the NH primary. An argument against Barack Obama began by suggesting that though the profound rhetoric of Martin Luther King helped fuel the Civil Rights movement, it was President Johnson who helped push through the legislation that brought an end to segregation. It was an argument that was supposed to say something along the line of “change needs to work in harmony with experience to create outcome” which is structured to say that though Obama has great rhetorical skills and can engage a crowd, he doesn’t have the experience to accomplish what he promises.

However that comment, along with the accusation that those polled in NH may have mislead pollsters, has lead to a series of articles being published in the mainstream media and in blogs pushing race as an issue.

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The State South Carolina’s largest circulating newspaper has endorsed John McCain saying the choice came down between him and Governor Mike Huckabee but that it made its decision because of Huckabee’s lack of foreign policy knowledge. They also said of John McCain:

Experience, certainly. Integrity, even more so. But John McCain’s most conspicuous virtue is courage. He is a brave and tough man who unlike some candidates has no need to bluster, but is able to speak with humility and generosity to those with whom he disagrees. A McCain presidency would do much to restore confidence in American leadership, at home and abroad.

From the Associated Press Mitt Romney is pulling his advertising in South Carolina and Florida to focus on Michigan where he is running a tight race against John McCain.

Romney had been spending about $280,000 per week in South Carolina and spent $3 million there last year, according to rival campaigns. In Florida, he had been spending $160,000 per week and had spent 2.5 million in 2007.