After last night's vote in New Hampshire, there are five viable Republican candidates left standing: Trump, Cruz, Kasich, Bush and Rubio. 

The vote in South Carolina will be on Saturday February 20th and already attack ads are on the air between Trump and Cruz:

Trump ad against Ted Cruz running in South Carolina:

NARRATOR: "What kind of man talks from both sides of his mouth on amnesty for illegals on national television and still denies it?  Who took more than a million dollars in sweetheart loans from Wall Street banks and fails to disclose them as require by law? ((EDIT)) Ted Cruz.  The worst kind of a Washington insider who just can't be trusted."

((EDIT))

Cruz ad attacking Trump:

KID #1: "Look, I got the Trump action figure!"

KID #2: "No way, that's yuugeee!"

KID #3: "What's he do?"

KID #1: "He pretends to be a Republican!"

((EDIT))

KID #3 (HOLDING A FEMALE DOLL): "Check out my house, Mr. Trump."

KID #1 (HOLDING THE TRUMP DOLL): "That's a lousy house!  I'm going to take your house with eminent domain and park my limos there!"

ALL KIDS: "Eminent domain!!"

(The kids start to smash a playhouse to pieces)

So you can see the South Carolina race will be intense, as both Trump and Cruz vie for conservative votes and the three more moderate Republicans desperately try to emerge.

On the Democrat side, Bernie Sanders must get black votes in order to compete against Hillary Clinton in South Carolina and Nevada.

He started his campaign for those votes last night:

SANDERS: "When we talk about transforming America, it means ending the disgrace of this country having more people in jail than any other country in the world, disproportionately African-American and Latino."

Sanders says he is a straight-talker, but not on this issue.

The truth is African-Americans make up 13% of the total population in the USA, but commit 37% of all murders.

And 90% of black murder-victims are killed by other blacks.

You will never ever hear either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton say that.

The Republican candidates will not likely point that out because it is politically incorrect.

It's much easier to cry racism than actually address the root causes of violent crime, which are a corrosive culture and the collapse of the traditional family.

One footnote: Some of the candidates made a big deal out of the heroin problem in New Hampshire but of course failed to mention that President Obama and other politicians now consider selling heroin a deadly drug to be a non-violent crime not worth much punishment.

Thus the risk-reward ratio of dealing hard drugs rises.

Again, most politicians will never tell you the truth about social problems, preferring to pander.

Trump and Sanders, the victors last night, largely won because they are seen as mavericks, outsiders who will dismantle a corrupt and inept political system.

That's the perception.

We'll see what kind of reality both bring going forward.

And that's the memo.