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(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Romney downplays expectations, Gingrich surges as South Carolina votes Romney downplays expectations, Gingrich surges as South Carolina votes By the CNN Political Unit updated 11:15 AM EST, Sat January 21, 2012 25 delegates at stake in South Carolina STORY HIGHLIGHTS * NEW: New poll shows Gingrich with big lead over Romney in S.C. * Gingrich has surged in polls in week leading up to primary * Gingrich strategist predicts victory * Romney comes off a tough week with Santorum's official Iowa win It's a big day for politics in South Carolina Saturday on CNN. Tune in at 4 p.m. ET to see the candidates debate the issues from Thursday night's edge-of-your-seat debate then, at 6 ET, CNN's special live coverage of the South Carolina primary begins. See the results as they come in on CNN, CNN.com/Live and the CNN mobile apps. Columbia, South Carolina (CNN) -- A new poll released as South Carolinians are voting in their Republican primary shows Newt Gingrich's week-long surge taking him past Mitt Romney into a substantial lead among likely voters in the Palmetto State. The American Research Group poll, conducted Thursday and Friday, shows Gingrich leading Romney by a 40%-26% margin. ARG's last poll, released Thursday, showed a virtual tie with Gingrich at 33% and Romney at 32%. Two weeks ago, Romney's campaign was looking at two wins under its belt, a big lead in South Carolina, a bigger lead in Florida and the possibility of a clear path to the Republican presidential nomination. But a day before the vote, Romney's camp was downplaying expectations and Gingrich's predicting victory. "It's tight, it's real tight," said one Romney adviser who did not want to be quoted discussing internal poll numbers. A top Gingrich strategist in South Carolina was predicting victory. Richard Quinn, a longtime South Carolina GOP strategist who worked for Jon Huntsman but signed on to advise Gingrich this week, told CNN Friday that the former House speaker will walk away with "between a 4- and 6-point plurality win" in the contest. South Carolina is the third contest on the primary calendar and the first in the South. The winner of the primary has gone on to win the Republican nomination in every election since 1980. As late as Tuesday, Romney had a double-digit lead in most polls of likely voters in the state's primary, but Gingrich turned in two strong debate performances in the state this week while Romney was put on his heels by his rivals. Then what had been declared an eight-vote Romney victory in Iowa's January 3 caucuses was reversed into a 34-vote win for Rick Santorum when the state party certified its results on Thursday. Later that day, Texas Gov. Rick Perry suspended his campaign and threw his support to Gingrich. "It has been a hard week," said state treasurer Curtis Loftis, a leading Romney surrogate said Friday. "Nobody is going to deny that." Santorum trails Romney and Gingrich and the Iowa reversal and an earlier endorsement by a group of leading conservative Christian leaders hasn't translated into support in a state where a large part of Republican voters call themselves evangelical or conservative Christians. But the former Pennsylvania senator said on Friday that he had felt a "palpable change" over the last 48 hours. Santorum has spent the week trying to bring down Gingrich in what most see as a race between the moderate Romney against conservatives Gingrich or Santorum. On Friday, he made parallels to Goldilocks and the Three Bears, calling Gingrich's history too hot, questioning whether he had the "discipline to go out and be steady," and Romney as "just a little cool, just a little timid." Left out of Santorum's fable is Texas Rep. Ron Paul, although most polls show him running just a few points behind Santorum. Although most GOP strategists see Paul's strict interpretation of the Constitution and his views on defense and spending as out of step with the mainstream, he appeals to libertarian-leaning Republicans and has a large following among younger voters. On Friday, Paul addressed that appeal, saying, "A lot of people do identify me with another generation, the younger generation who's so enthusiastic about the things that we've been talking about in going back to the Constitution," Paul said. "So this to me is very encouraging because the growth of the freedom movement is getting to be exponential. It was very, very slow for a long time." The candidates are making their final pitches to voters on Saturday with Gingrich, Romney and Santorum making several stops in the more conservative upstate before they converge in the state capital of Columbia as returns start coming in. An anticipated convergence between Romney and Gingrich didn't come about when Romney showed up early at a Greenville restaurant where his and Gingrich's campaigns had scheduled appearances at the same time. Gingrich showed up after Romney had left and asked, "Where's Mitt?" and said that he was hoping for an impromptu debate. The Romney campaign scheduled its stop late, trying to pick up conservative voters in the waning hours, but aides insist the competing appearances were purely coincidence. The campaign trail leads to Florida next, which votes on January 31. Romney has held a large lead in polls of likely primary voters but recent polls show the race tightening a bit there, too. CNN's Jim Acosta, Adam Aigner-Treworgy, Dana Bash, Peter Hamby, John Helton, Shawna Shepherd and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report. Poster Comment: The American Research Group poll, conducted Thursday and Friday, shows Gingrich leading Romney by a 40%-26% margin. ARG's last poll, released Thursday, showed a virtual tie with Gingrich at 33% and Romney at 32%. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 6.
#2. To: TwentyTwelve (#0)
Newt has been the one to keep an eye on since the first debate he appeared in, and I'm nor surprised he's beating Mittens. That said, if Newt makes it to the convention, he's gonna have to cut a juicy deal with Ron Paul to keep him in the fold. I have a few ideas, but for now, I'll keep them to myself except one. Don't be surprised if you hear Rand Pauls's name being thrown around as a possible VP. Reagan had his Bush, maybe it's time for Bush to have his Reagan :)
www.politico.com/blogs/bu...er-officially-111713.html Santorum wins Iowa, officially By MAGGIE HABERMAN | 1/20/12 11:44 PM EST This statement just landed from the Republican Party of Iowa, about 20 minutes shy of midnight: In order to clarify conflicting reports and to affirm the results released January 18 by the Republican Party of Iowa, Chairman Matthew Strawn and the State Central Committee declared Sen. Rick Santorum the winner of the 2012 Iowa Caucus. This is a switch from the party's stand yesterday morning, that the results were inconclusive and a winner couldn't be called because of a number of precincts where the votes remained unaccounted for. The statement does not say why Strawn and the SCC have now decided to declare a winner. If Mitt Romney wins South Carolina tomorrow night, this outcome becomes less significant, since Santorum did not get a visible bounce from what was initially called as an eight-vote loss. But if Romney loses to Newt Gingrich in South Carolina, he will be one for three in the early states as he heads into Florida, and each state will have had a different victor. And it would give Santorum, who has struggled to gain traction in South Carolina but who did have a strong debate Thursday night, a reason to keep fighting past Saturday night.
if anything moromney, newtered, and sanatoriumed should be fighting for air for the noose around their treasonous necks.
#7. To: IRTorqued (#6)
With the exception of Ron Paul, they have given us an extremely dismal choice for POTUS.
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