It’s primary day in the Palmetto State. Will our friends to the northeast give the nod to Newt or Mitt? Will Ron Paul and Rick Santorum perform better than the polls suggest? If Gingrich wins we’ll have had three contests with three different winners. If Romney wins he’ll have recaptured the momentum and perhaps put a stranglehold on the nomination. Both Paul and Santorum have said the race for them continues no matter today’s results.
What are your thoughts?
Google has their South Carolina results map up.
UPDATE: Gingrich wins big, Georgia to play big role in nomination fight.
My thoughts …. no way can a Northeast Liberal (Mitt) win SC, even with dems voting. Newt has a semi-native son advantage since he is associated with GA. Ron Paul has an advantage since many in the .mil like him. My prediction:
Newt – 36%
Paul – 22%
Mitt – 18%
Santorum – 16%
All others including the Colbert/Cain vote = 8%
SC will be the end of Mitt’s campaign. We are moving onto states which vote Republican in the General and have closed primaries. Newt will win those handily. Mitt’s aura of inevitability (his only real asset) will be crushed.
The death of the Tea Party will also be shown as false. DC Republicans will lose it mentally and we’ll see all sorts of nasty stuff come out about Newt. DC Insiders and Dodd owned Senators, Chambliss and Isaskson, will take out their anger at conservatives and vote for PIPA/SOPA.
If the good women of South Carolina are as disgusted by Newt as I am and they come out to vote, he may have a sad surprise when the votes are tallied.
Newt – 37%
Mitt – 29%
Rick – 15%
Ron – 11%
Herman-Colbert – 3%
Temporary setback for Mitt, but he will fire away in Florida both verbally and with ads in every market about Newt’s ethics. It will be interesting to see how Medicare Part D is played in the Sunshine State with so many voting retirees…can Newt overcome the onslaught of negative ads by touting his support of the legislation creating Part D? Santorum may hang around a little longer, but eventually he will get out and endorse Newt. The Paul fade has begun, but he will stick around until the convention picking up a few caucus states along the way.
I don’t think Romney breaks 26% no matter what.
“I don’t think Romney breaks 26% no matter what.”
I agree for S. Carolina, but Team Romney is about to deploy a very aggressive, “Newt is unstable, unelectable and unfit to lead”message, and considering there is mounds of evidence to back that up, it will probably work in FL. I think Gingrich will win S. Carolina, but will get hammered in Florida.
TJ – very good – 40-28-17
Doubt even the most optimistic would shout out a 40+ guesstimate…
Worst case is shaping up to at least Newt’s input on the platform….
Newt got a boost in the last debate
Still got to think Romney in Florida
I wanted to go there salty, but couldn’t bring myself to hit the ‘4’ key.
Great win for Newt, gracious speech afterward where he attempted to imply that he embodies all the best characteristics of his remaining opponents…very clever.
Debates tomorrow and Thursday (Romney will lose his poll lead by Wednesday, but his advantage in early absentees will be hard to overcome even if Newt gets major momentum). SOTU Tuesday with Mitch Daniels providing the GOP response. Just another boring week of politics in America.
As most of you know I am not judgmental about personal choices in life. Years ago I said the biggest issue I had was Clinton, as an employer he was sleeping with interns. This behavior violates the rights of all involved including co-workers. Newt is a very bright guy, but his history of violating ethical issue from sleeping with interns, fines, cash for selling his contacts in Washington for close to two hundre million dollars for supporting bills like Medicare part d, lobbying for ffmac……I ask how can anyone vote for him?
Because they’re told to.
“As most of you know I am not judgmental about personal choices in life.” — he says before being judgemental about Newt’s personal and professional life.
How can anyone vote for him you ask? Easy, he is the best of the 4 remaining GOPers which unfortunately is akin to being the brightest guy on the short bus.
JK didn’t write he wasn’t judgmental about professional choices. Other that the sleeping with interns that is more personal than professional, the stuff is all professional.
Three Jack,
Newt stepping with his employee would eliminate his chance of keeping his job in most professions.
Sorry
Sleeping..
Shtupping..
John, maybe your assertion is correct, it depends on circumstances. There are many situations where an executive has slept with an employee and stayed with his/her company. Either way, it does not prevent the same exec from seeking/attaining employment elsewhere.
Three Jack,
Newt has demonstrated that he will step over the line not just in the work place but in other ethical areas. It seems like a patern, from sleeping with interns to lobbying for close to two hundre million for bills like Medicare part d, ff mac…….. As a party insider how can the social conservative movement beat up Sunday drinking laws, gays……….and endorse Newt?
South Carolina Primary Open ( Marriage) Thread?
South Carolinians showed tonight they dont agree with the traditional definition of marriage. Is Gay Marriage next for the Palmetto State?
Taking words from someone else:
“Mark Sanford is kicking himself. If he only knew there was this much acceptance of open marriage in SC he’d still be Governor.”
lol, +1 to someone else
My thought is that it is un-effing believable that Newt could even scratch in the primary. Do Republicans REALLY want to nominate the only Speaker in history to be censured by Congress and fined over $300,000 for “misappropriating” funds?? The fact that he has the nerve to actually run for president speaks volumes. Does the voting public pay no attention at all to a person’s character or to their public record??
Sally, I had to do a double take and make sure you did, indeed, say ‘scratch’ instead of ‘snatch’ when talking about Newt. LOL! One of those words highlights the Speaker’s entire problem with most voters!
Norway, the sad thing is that apparently most SC voters didn’t pay attention at all to the FORMER Speaker’s many problems. Let’s hope people in Florida and other states going forward think about what’s best for our country, instead of what smooth-talking lobbyist Newt says in efforts to become Lobbyist in Chief!
Santorum wins Iowa.
Romney wins New Hampshire.
Gingrich wins South Carolina.
Voters cast their ballots for the same people and same policies over and over, then complain that nothing ever changes.
Latest news: Santorum did not win Iowa. Apparently folks up there are counting-challenged plus lost the ballots from 8-9 precincts — so they don’t know what the actual total was and Iowa has declared their result a Romney-Santorum tie.
LOL, Iowa, the new Florida. Did a guy named Chad count those ballots?
Nope, they declared Santorum the winner.
Comparing Mitt Romney to Newt Gingrich is like comparing a strategically deployed force to unsecured artillery. Newt is a capable strategist…but he LIKES to be unsecured artillery. I don’t want to believe that America will put a loose cannon in the White House….especially not after the dud they elected last time.
Newtie talks about a balanced budget but offers no significant budget cuts…criticizes “elites” while he had a half million dollar Tiffany’s credit line…talks about killing enemies but was a draft dodger…talks about “changing Washington” while he derives most of his income directly or indirectly from a career in Washington…complains about the “pain” in his personal life which he caused by his numerous affairs…and S.C. Republicans give him a win because he is a good debater and he criticizes the press…very strange…
Newt’s whole campaign is based on deception, most glaring of which is the “R-GA” tag that he has on every TV appearance. He does not live or vote in our state and has not for about two decades, during which he has lived in Virginia. His tag should be “R-VA” but he deliberately uses previous decades-old tie to our state. Another deception is using the title “Speaker” which he has not been since the 90’s; he could accurately be called “Former Speaker, ” but doing that is audacious since he was censured and run out of Congress on a rail.
If using titles, he should be referred to as Lobbyist Gingrich, whose office is on K Street (not the Capitol Bldg), and who has made millions in taxpayer dollars from government-funded clients like GinnieMae, FreddieMac, etc. Newt is not only part of the 1%, he is the lobbyist for the 1%.
Will the Georgia state legislature please pass a resolution disavowing our fine state of Newt Gingrich and clarifying the fact that he is NOT a Georgian?
Also, if it could include a clause or amendment instructing Newt that there is no “R” in Washington, that would be just swell.