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CLICK TO GO TO INTERACTIVE MAP. Newt 34 Counties. Mitt 33 Counties. ______________________________________ Mitt Romny: 771,842 --- [46.4] Newt Gingrich 531,294 - [31.9] Rick Santorum 222,248 - [13.4] Ron Paul 116,776 --------- [7.0] Others 21,538 -------------- [1.3]

.....As it happens, Ronald Reagan himself -- but of course -- long ago addressed just this issue. On December 16, 1976, barely over a month after Gerald Ford rang up yet another loss by a moderate Republican presidential candidate, Reagan -- not happy -- was interviewed by the New York Times. Said Reagan: "We are simply saying, 'What does our party stand for?' If the great majority agrees with the philosophy, and some say it's a philosophy they can't go along with, that's a decision for every individual to make. A political party is not a fraternal order. A party...

TAMPA — Keep an eye on Florida's electoral map tonight, and you'll see that the Republican presidential primary is a tale of two Mitt Romneys. There's 2008 Mitt Romney, who campaigned as the conservative alternative to John McCain and won big in conservative northeast Florida and southwest Florida. He lost the state by 5 percentage points after McCain overwhelmingly won more moderate southeast Florida and dominated the counties along the I-4 corridor that make up about half the electorate. The Mitt Romney of 2012 largely eschews the social conservatism he stressed four years ago and instead focuses on his business...

Confident of victory in the Florida primaries tomorrow but afraid it might not be big enough to derail challenger Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney's team is moving to play down talk he will win by 10 points or more. "The win will wind up big, but we're not going to get double digits," said a key advisor. Several polls today have Romney's lead increasing to a Real Clear Politics average of 12 percent. Only three of nine of the most recent polls have Romney's lead in single numbers, with the highest being a 20 point lead in a Suffolk University poll...

More than 100 people rallied behind former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in downtown Jacksonville this morning as he promised he is closing the gap on rival Mitt Romney in Florida's Republican primary, despite polls showing otherwise. Gingrich appeared in a conference room at the Hyatt with his wife and Ronald Reagan's eldest son, Michael, for a 20-minute speech before leaving about 9:30 a.m. for other parts of the state. It was Gingrich's first public appearance Monday, a day before the primary. "I think we can run a campaign that creates a dramatic choice and that enables us to win a...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- One of the unique things about the Florida primary is that since the state is home to Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center, presidential candidates are required to make at least one substantial statement about American space policy. Newt Gingrich made his statement in a speech in Cocoa Beach on Wednesday, and Mitt Romney answered in an appearance at Cape Canaveral Friday evening. Together, the two speeches present perhaps the most striking contrast of the entire campaign between two strikingly different men. [SNIP] It would be hard to find a more stark contrast between Newt...

...."I am not running to make the Wall Street elite and the Washington elite happy," said Gingrich. "I am running to change both groups on behalf of the American people!" ... "The truth is we have been served badly, the American people, by the establishment of this country in both parties. Let's be clear about it. In both parties! It's time someone stood up for hard-working, tax-paying Americans and said, enough! And if that makes the old order uncomfortable, my answer is: Good." Listeners got to hear a detailed pre-history of the Gingrich administration, an hour-by-hour countdown of what he'd...

Reporting from Port Saint Lucie, Fla.— Dubbed the "proxies with moxie," Mitt Romney's congressional backers have been crashing Newt Gingrich's events to offer a counterpoint to the former House speaker's remarks. It's an unusual tactic to begin with, but their collisions with Gingrich's testy spokesman, R.C. Hammond, have made their sparring into the campaign trail's version of must-see TV. Gingrich said he doesn't mind their presence, which he said is a sign of desperation by Romney. "They send a member of Congress, we send R.C. It's a slight overmatch — R.C.'s a little bit more informed than they are, but...

Florida voters have a chance next week to avenge the cold-blooded, public execution of a handicapped woman by depriving her of water and food for 13 long, harrowing days that captivated not just the attention of the nation, but the whole world. Instead, I fear, too many Americans have forgotten Terri Schiavo and all her killing represented about the declining moral standards of our nation and the cowardice of our public officials. Tuesday, Sept. 5, is Election Day in Florida. A primary vote is being held to determine who will be the candidates for governor, succeeding Jeb Bush. The leading...