Posted on 01/21/2012 2:52:40 PM PST by TBBT
Nearly two out of three South Carolina Republican primary voters say the recent Republican presidential debates played an important factor in their decision, according to early CBS News exit polls - a good sign for Newt Gingrich, who was widely seen as outshining rival Mitt Romney in both debates there this week.
Sixty-four percent said the debates were an important factor for them; just 34 percent said they were not. Gingrich won standing ovations in both debates while Romney often struggled - and at one point received a smattering of boos for equivocating over how many years of his tax returns he would release.
Gingrich, who polls suggest overtook Romney in the final days before today's primary, is hoping for a victory that would keep Romney from locking up the nomination before the end of the month. A majority of voters - 53 percent - said they made up their mind about who to back within the last few days.
The exit poll data showed that South Carolina voters overwhelmingly cited the economy as the most important issue, with 61 percent citing it. (The economy was the top issue in Iowa and New Hampshire as well.) It was followed by the federal budget deficit (23 percent), abortion (8 percent) and health care (4 percent). Seventy-eight percent of voters in South Carolina, where the unemployment rate is 9.9 percent, said they are "very" worried about the nation's economy.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I guess that means he weighed the alternatives and decided that a no-show would be even worse. He got ridiculed for it a lot here when the news came out.
I live in FL, and even by floating this, Romney made himself seem like an idiot.
My point is that it should be a non-issue.
It should be an issue and will be for barry and media if mitt gets that far. And, then what happens, if he’s the nominee? Mitt SHOULD want to be upfront with us but he doesn’t. He’s already too much like barry - now we can add hiding things.
Current count - 60% counted
Newt 41% Mitt 27% Rick 18% RonP 13%It seems likely the final will be very similar. Major difference is that the percentages for Santorum and Paul are reversed in the actual count. Probably some self-selection going on there that favors RPaul (similar to the internet "polls".)
Given the News Media’s favoritism toward Obama, what do you think the odds are that they will allow Newt to do anything when Obama Refuses to debate Newt?
This is not 1860, and Lincoln never won a majority in his election in the first place. Lincoln won against 2 opponents that were more similar to each other then they were to him. He thus divided the opposition against him.
Newt won’t have that option, and even if he did Lincoln’s other strategy is unlikely to work in today’s world with regard to today’s mass media technology.
Obama will used his gigantic campaign chest to fire salvo after salvo at Newt and never give Newt any kind of form in which he can respond to any of it. Newt will be even more helpless than he was in Iowa & New Hampshire without substantial campaign skills & money.
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