Yes, Santorum certainly smoked him in Iowa, but all indications in SC and national polls show Newt with more strength. Obviously numbers will change with Santorums latest press and with Perry (and Bachmann’s?) support in the air.
South Carolina won’t matter nearly as much in the general election as PA and OH. Santorum can win in both. I’m not so sure about Gingrich (which is the nice way of saying he would probably lose big in both).
I have my issues with Santorum, but I have fewer with him than with Gingrich. Santorum speaks well on the fly, but not as well as Gingrich. Gingrich needs to be a fast talker because he’s taken a lot of bad positions. I don’t mind folks who make mistakes and learn from them. In fact, I think they are the most reliable and best spoken. I’m just not convinced Gingrich is one of those folks.
Like I said, the game has changed. Can’t use the national numbers from the week before, not with Perry and likely Bachmann dropping.
It’s a 4 man race, and it looks like Santorum’s the beneficiary.
He’s already up to 10 percent in New Hampshire which is 4x where he was just a few weeks ago. Likely up to around 17-18 percent nationally at this point.
Yes, he still has significant work to do to catch up, but this race still got much more interesting.