Posted on 01/21/2012 3:54:53 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
CHARLESTON, S.C. -- South Carolina Republicans went to the polls Saturday, poised to shake up the presidential campaign and deny Mitt Romney the easy victory he'd hoped might cap a march to the party's presidential nomination.
Even before the South Carolina polls closed at 7 p.m. EST, it was clear that Palmetto State Republicans were refusing to go along with what days earlier appeared to be a Romney sweep to victory in their state. A new American Research Group poll released Saturday showed Gingrich with 40 percent of the vote, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney trailed at 26 percent. The poll was taken Thursday and Friday.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, appeared braced for a disappointing finish.
"We'd like to win here, of course, but we have a long way to go," Romney told a crowd at Tommy's Ham House in Greenville, S.C., Saturday. "So come join us in Florida, then in Nevada, Michigan, Colorado."
Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives, relished a tide of support in recent days, thanks to two strong debate performances.
"I was hoping for a debate. Where's Mitt?" Gingrich said when he arrived at the same Tommy's Ham House a half-hour after Romney, who arrived and left well ahead of schedule and avoided a personal encounter with his chief rival.
Voters were divided between the two candidates topping the polls.
Gingrich's three marriages and admissions of affairs made no shred of difference to many voters, including Rema Thomas, 60, of Chapin, S.C., an evangelical who decided on Gingrich after watching the two S.C. debates.
"No one does not have baggage. Newt's was just exposed more because of his time in politics," she said. "I think it's time for a bulldog president. Grab 'em by the pants leg and don't leg to until you draw blood. That's Newt."
Thomas said she knows Gingrich is a "hot head," but with the sorry state of the country and a questionable crowd running the show in Washington, "what do we have to lose?"
"I like Mitt Romney. He's the only guy who can beat Obama," said Tim Walker, a general contractor from Columbia, S.C.
But Romney, who watched a double-digit lead here five days ago evaporate, had to contend with voters jumping on the Gingrich bandwagon instead.
"I don't think Romney is the best person to put forward," said Nikki Trawick a, business woman from Columbia who was voting for Gingrich.
Many voters said the two S.C. debates held in Myrtle Beach and Charleston the past week were game changers, convincing South Carolina that Gingrich could take the fight to President Barack Obama in November - and simultaneously pound the media.
"One of the worst things in this country is the media," said Steve Chase, 61, of Chapin, S.C., who voted for Gingrich on Saturday. "They have an agenda. And (Gingrich) is the only one, probably since Reagan, who stands up to them."
At stake were 25 delegates, about 1 percent of the 2,286 that will vote at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., the final week of August. The winner of the South Carolina vote will get 11 delegates; the popular-vote winner in each of seven congressional districts will get 2 delegates.
Bragging rights also were up for grabs.
The winner of the South Carolina Republican primary has gone on to win the nomination in every contested election since 1980.
In addition to Romney and Gingrich, voters had a choice of two other active candidates, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.
Santorum faced a test of whether his appeal to social conservatives would pay off, particularly in a state where 60 percent of primary voters in 2008 called themselves born-again or evangelicals.
Santorum's standing also was testing the political clout of several leaders of national social conservative groups who backed him a week ago in hopes of rallying their followers to one candidate against Romney.
Santorum vows to press on to Florida, which votes Jan. 31, regardless of the finish.
"We're going forward. This race has just transformed itself," he said Friday. "We feel very good that we can go down there and be competitive, and frankly beyond that."
Romney signaled Saturday that he'll escalate attacks on Gingrich heading toward Florida, at the same time that he belatedly agreed to a second debate in the state this week. The candidates will debate Monday night in Tampa and Thursday night in Jacksonville.
Romney called on Gingrich to better explain the $1.6 million in payments he received from troubled housing agency Freddie Mac. "I'd like to see what he actually told Freddie Mac. Don't you think we ought to see it?" he said.
Romney's campaign also noted in an e-mail that it was the anniversary of the day in 1997 when the House of Representatives voted to reprimand the then-speaker of the House for unethical conduct.
"Happy 15th anniversary, Mr. Speaker," Romney's campaign said.
As they maneuvered in South Carolina, early voting started in Florida.
Joy Diamond, a retired administrative assistant from Pompano Beach, Fla., weighed personal characteristics and voted for Romney.
"He's been married for 43 years. He has a family. He is very astute, educated," she said. Gingrich, she said, is too old (68) and "not to mention his checkered background."
Richard Indovino, a retired tax accountant from Pompano Beach, voted for Gingrich, calling him knowledgeable, "gutsy," and a better debater than Romney.
Richard DeMaio, a Pompano Beach resident who sells building supplies, said he was voting for Gingrich because he felt that with his experience he was the one most likely to beat President Barack Obama.
"We can't have four more years," DeMaio said. "He has the ability to fix the poor economy and unemployment."
Keep Obama sweating.
If Newt wins, Obama may actually have to do some work. Damn.
Let’s not get comfortable. FL is bound to be brutal, and people will need to fight hard there.
GO NEWT!
I just read on another thread that santorum may endorse willard (acording to Laura Ingraham.)
Pelosi threatening to dig up Newt’s old ethics issues means to me that they are more afraid of Newt than Romney.
This is an OPEN Primary State....so this is very interesting...
This is what democracy looks like.
BTTT for later and final numbers.
Again, you've got to carry your own party's voting base FIRST.
Romney seemed poised to rip off a couple of Democrat factions ~ but not the Republican party voting base. He seemed to be stuck at something nearer 23% than not.
That's not a winner, and frankly, I cannot trust the political acumen of those who imagine that kind of candidate should head up the Republican ticket this Fall.
Here in Virginia all of our Republican "big dogs" (or was that "big Republican dogs") imagined that they would be in Hog Heaven by wheeling and dealing with Mitt. They even greased the skids for him and froze all the regular Republicans and Conservatives from the primary list. We have no one to vote for.
I just heard the first reports in had Newt getting most of the votes with the first 10% of the precincts counted.
Sounds to me like people are more concerned with national security, freedom, jobs and the basics.
BTTT
[I just read on another thread that santorum may endorse willard (according to Laura Ingraham.)]
That might finish Santorum as a political figure. I think such an endorsement would be viewed as sour grapes.
Let’s hear now from all the Santorum fans how conservative he is.
I want ...to see . . .her EAT CROW.
Really bad. I want to see her hang her head in shame.
I’d eventually like to see her become entirely irrelevant, her ratings plummet, and learn of her fate sometime later, scavenging for stories at the smallest market local MSNBC affiliate.
Let’s hear now from all the Santorum fans how conservative he is.
The Right to Life groups will be FURIOUS!!!
That wouldn’t surprise me. Rick Santorum is a petulant little child with an inferiority complex who would do something like that out of spite.
If little Ricky does this out of spite then he can kiss his career goodbye. Your diagnosis is dead on. What a little man.
Yeah RS is a prick and liar...but he’s a ‘social conservative’ what ever that means.
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