And what if Romney and Paul come in first and second, respectively, in SC? That’s very likely.
Did you read that yesterday a combination of OWS loonies and Ron Paul supporters prevented Newt Gingrich from speaking in a city in New Hampshire? Paul and his crazy supporters are very determined to take over the GOP. The man shouldn’t even be running as a Republican, and he is seriously disrupting our nominating process.
That said, I agree that the rush to pick a candidate is not helpful. Aside from giving way too much power to two rural states that are hardly typical of the US population or economy, it simply focuses on personal things (like women voting for Santorum because they’ve met him and think he’s sooooo clean-cut and such a nice boy) and doesn’t give the people time to discuss the ideas and solutions of the candidates, if they even know them.
Third place among the anti-Romney pack of Perry, Santorum and Newt. And I really think Newt needs to win SC among the anti-Romneys to go on. SC should be a strong state for him. If he cannot beat Perry and Santorum there, it would show major structural weakness for his campaign.
Perry and Santorum can't be single-digit laggards.