[VinL]

Thing the poll numbers are why Newt backed off a little- he doesn’thave to go wholly negative now— let the SuperPac do it.

Hammer on “crony capitalism” - and wait for Sarah Palin to show up— which I think she will. Then, it’s game, set -match.

[Parley Baer]

Excellent news. Newt has really cut into Romneys lead. I think by election day Newt will be ahead. GO NEWT!

[Gator113]

Romney’s day just got better. John Bolton has endorsed Romney. He announced on Greta.....damn.

[One Name]

I would have expected Perry to be polling better..

Haven’t been around SC since the late 70’s- 80. Went back to Newport News about 5 years ago and was amazed at how the whole area has grown- we used to slide down to Hatteras a little off-season and had the place to ourselves , it seemed.

Been a big growth state from what I hear so I guess demographics have changed.

[Proudcongal]

Yay Newt! Seems the stuff coming out on Romney is starting to make a dent.

[mylife]

This is great news considering all of the BIG pundits are telling Newt to get out of the race.
I would like Perry to be polling higher, but I am happy just to see the “experts” get kicked square in the nuts.

[Christie at the beach]

After watching the Bain video, Romney did go in and manufactures stability of a company, (more than once) then flushed the companies making millions along with his other Latin investors. He knew when to buy and when to dump. I cannot believe Hannity and Rush do not think that this kind of business buy and dump and make tons of money is not important. (profiteering comes to mind- did he have friends on the inside of Wall Street? I see why Gov. Palin said this should be talked about before the general and ask Mitt to show the proof of the jobs that he created. He cut a number of jobs and it was not for reconstructing a company.

[MindBender26]

Any idea what the numbers were 2-3 weeks ago? It’s all about trends, and I would have expected Newt to be up about 7-10 over Romney per-New Hampshire.

[Dysart]

PDF Of The Poll Breakdown

[CainConservative]

NEWTORRRUM!!

Willard 23%
Gingrich 21% ..Go NEWT!

Santorum 14% ..Go TORRRUM!
Paul 13%

Huntsman 7%
Perry 5%

[WFTR]

This time, the results will be dramatically different, as the state's active Evangelical voting bloc is expected to set aside prejudice in favor of pragmatism.

I'm glad to see people setting aside prejudice, but the explanations go deeper than pragmatism.

Newt Gingrich has had three wives and was cheating on his previous wife before marrying each of the second two. He has been a professor, a Congressman, and a lobbyist. We've had three years of a professor in the White House, and that's not working well for us. Congressmen have a horrible approval rating right now, and lobbyists are lower than Congressmen. After months of saying that he wouldn't let the media stir up a feeding frenzy among GOP candidates, he's flip-flopped and gone completely negative. Dr. Gingrich is a smart man with some good ideas, but his only experience is in government. Many people are looking for some other perspective to solve problems this time.

Rick Perry has shown that he's not that conservative after all. His big achievement was to be the trans-Texas corridor in spite of the huge waste of money and the eminent domain problems. His Texas DREAM Act does not play well among Republicans in general and particularly in South Carolina. He still hasn't leveled with the voters about his reasoning on the Gardasil issue, and his lie in that debate looks bad. On the pragmatic side, a guy who only gets 1% in New Hampshire isn't likely to beat Obama in November.

Rick Santorum looks pretty good, but in South Carolina, he's just another Yankee. His big government positions on many issues don't sit well with an electorate that is deeply concerned about spending. His 17 point loss in his last election looks bad. I had been inclined to write off some of that margin to the difficulty of running against someone from the Casey family in Pennsylvania. I've recently heard that Rick Santorum has always been somewhat friendly to the PETA and HSUS people. Considering that both are strongly opposed to hunting, getting chummy with them could have hurt him in pro-hunting Pennsylvania. Being PETA-friendly is not good for anyone in the South although I can't see Obama winning any southern states regardless of the GOP nominee.

Jon Huntsman can try to be more westerner than Yankee, but he's a guy who worked for Obama. He can't spend the huge amount of time in South Carolina that he's already spent in New Hampshire. I've seen him in a long format debate, and he's not as bad there as he is in shorter format debates. Even so, he's not going to get a chance to do well in South Carolina.

Ron Paul thinks Iran should have nuclear weapons. South Carolina won't appreciate that position in a candidate.

If Mark Sanford hadn't become involved in an affair, he'd have had a clear path to the nomination through Iowa and South Carolina. He would have done well enough in New Hampshire and might have even won Florida. Only so many people can prepare to have a legitimate run for president, and he was one of them. By his choices, he disqualified himself (although the same choices don't seem to have disqualified Dr. Gingrich).

If George Allen of Virginia had avoided using an ethnic slur in his 2006 Senate race and had held onto that seat against James Webb, he would have been a strong candidate this year and would have almost certainly would have won South Carolina if Mark Sanford weren't in the race. He doesn't have quite as much private sector experience as most of us would like, but he had good qualifications.

The GOP lost the two candidates who would have been the legitimate front-runners in South Carolina. Given what's left, I'm not surprised that South Carolina evangelicals are putting aside anti-Mormon bias and looking again at Mitt Romney.

[danielmryan]

This time, the results will be dramatically different, as the state's active Evangelical voting bloc is expected to set aside prejudice in favor of pragmatism/

Yes, but not necessarily to Romney's benefit. Rick Santorum and Newt Gigrish are both "Papists."

[upchuck]

South Carolinians couldn’t care less about New Hampshire or Iowa.

Amen!

South Carolina
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[Grunthor]

Within two days of the vote, if Santorum (And I support him) is still ten pts back of Newt and Romney, he needs to do the honorable thing, bow out and immediately endorse and go to work for Newt Gingrich.

[Republican Wildcat]

Rick Perry has 5

Enough to make the difference - or put Santorum back up there with the top of the pack. Remember when some of the Perry supporters made the absurd charges that it was Cain who was trying to help Romney? It's actually Perry by staying in the race.

[Republican Wildcat]

Rick Perry has 5

Enough to make the difference - or put Santorum back up there with the top of the pack. Remember when some of the Perry supporters made the absurd charges that it was Cain who was trying to help Romney? It's actually Perry by staying in the race.

[lilyfreeper]

Santorum needs to bail out now! He has no chance whatsoever.
Crazy social con.

[VictoryGal]

Ho boy.... I’m super scared of a Myth candidacy, I’m throwing my hat into the Newt ring despite my preferring Santorum.

Make or break time. Gaaaah, I HATE this election cycle.

[Windflier]

"Rick Santorum, who came in second in the Iowa caucus is in third place in South Carolina with 14 percent..."

Unexpected!

[newzjunkey]

That poll is somewhat encouraging for those of us still silly enough to think Romney can be stopped, but this selection cycle will go down in flames.

Auditioning for the ticket-balancer slot for a Romney nominee all primary debate season, Santorum is a W-style big gov't Republican without the personal charm or executive experience. Folks are being swept away by his social focus while ignoring his record and proposals.

Time to brace for four more years of Obama and attempt to salvage the House congressional majority for another two years.