From S.C.’s the State:

“I don’t think there’s a chance, even with all these candidates, of matching the 2000 turnout,” said Neal Thigpen, a Republican analyst at Francis Marion University in Florence.
“I don’t think … this one has generated the excitement that Bush-McCain did. Just judging between the two years, in terms of content, this (campaign) could have been put on by the League of Women voters.”
In 2000, Republicans came to South Carolina stoked for a fight between Texas Gov. George Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
“Every day you’d go to your post box and you couldn’t take out all the mail,” Thigpen recalled. “It would be the most vile crap.”
In 2008, with an open field of candidates and no front-runner, Thigpen, who teaches political science and has long been active in S.C. Republican politics, said GOP voters have been left to choose the “least unacceptable” candidate.
“None of these guys can suit the whole range of groups or subgroups that are out there,” he said. “There’s nobody in there. They all want to say they’re the next Ronald Reagan, but none of them are the fusion candidate.”