He not only pulled it out, he did so in spectacular fashion
(MSNBC) Newt Gingrich has won the South Carolina Republican primary, capping off a remarkable comeback for his presidential bid that reshapes the trajectory of the battle for the GOP nomination as the race now heads to Florida and beyond.
The results mark the end of a tumultuous week in politics that saw Gingrich erase and then overcome the lead former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had in the Palmetto State following his victory in the Jan. 10 New Hampshire primary. Gingrich came on strong in the closing days of the campaign, looking to rally under his banner the many conservatives unwilling to get behind Romney, who had sought to posture himself as the eventual nominee.
How spectacular was the win? (graphic via the Politico, cut off the small amount of votes for the also rans)
Newt went from being way behind in the polling to an almost 13 point win. What does this mean? We now have three different winners for three contests. Two things we know are that Gingrich did incredible due to his debate performances in South Carolina, and the attack by ABC on Gingrich using one of his ex-wives was not only a liberal failure, but surely garnered him some sympathy support. We also know that Newt is at his best when he is going after Obama and the Democrats, along with the legacy media, in his professorial mode.
We also know that this very much hurts Mitt Romney, who might now be having a few issues in Florida. The Politico’s Maggie Haberman, in her 9 takeaways article mentions that “Romney may not realize he’s having a near-death experience.” Though, I’m not so sure that Perry’s backing had all that much to do with Newt’s big win. And Maggie is thrilled that Nikki Haley saw the guy she backed, Romney, come in a distant 2nd. Liberals do despise women who refuse to stay within the boxes liberals put them in. But, Newt did very well with women, 36% to Romney’s 30%.
What about Santorum? Personally, I wouldn’t characterize this as a bad showing. He’s never been a top tier candidate, despite the Iowa win. He’s always been known as a social issues guy, even though he is good on fiscal issues, and this election will be about fiscal issues.
The big loser? Well, Romney, for one. Even more so, Ron Paul. The debates were, again, big for the S.C. voters, and I’d suspect they didn’t appreciate the possibility of putting Cranky Uncle Ron in his ill-fitting suits up against Obama. They obviously didn’t appreciate Paul’s typical blame America rhetoric, which Newt took Paul to task on. How will the Florida voters, who often tend to be a little older, deal with Mr. Blame America? We’ll see what Paul says during the Florida debate. Florida has quite a few retirees who served in the military, and do not appreciate put the blame for everything bad on America as Paul typically does.
That said, I think, with all due respect, Erick Erickson is way off base
Newt Gingrich’s rise has a lot to do with Newt Gingrich’s debate performance. But it has just as much to do with a party base in revolt against its thought and party leaders in Washington, DC. The base is revolting because they swept the GOP back into relevance in Washington just under two years ago and they have been thanked with contempt ever since.
Yes, Romney may be the party insider choice. But, this surge by Newt is not due to any sort of base revolt. This kind of talk always amuses me, because it’s just not in our DNA to say “hmm, those big shots in D.C. support Romney, and they aren’t doing what we say, so we’ll vote for the other guy.” If that was the case, Perry would still be in the race, and more votes would have gone to Paul or Santorum. There’s no revolt going on, because, let’s face it, Newt would be the face of the GOP Washington insider.
Now on to Florida! Who do you think will win? If it’s anything like South Carolina, it’ll depend on the Monday night debate.
PS: Doug Ross says the big winners are Newt and Santorum, and
But Doug, you might ask, what about Ron Paul? What about him? Ron Paul is a kook, an anachronism, a Kucinich Libertarian wearing GOP clothes, whose views on foreign policy are so outside the mainstream that they can and must be dismissed.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
“the attack by ABC on Gingrich using one of his ex-wives was not only a liberal failure, but surely garnered him some sympathy support.”
ABC and a liberal plot to bring down Newt? Too funny!
Us libs are praying for a Newt nomination.
Not only will it be Obama in a cakewalk, it takes the Senate takeover off the table. and the House goes back to the good guys.
Please nominate Newt. Please. He is so much better than the east coast elitist RINO Mormon.
Why else would ABC run that, Jharp?
BTW, how you doing? Long time no hear from.
Seriously? Obama can take Newt in a debate?! This proves Liberalism is definitely a mental disorder.
Mr Teach, I did not take Erickson’s comments like you did. I took it to mean, the Tea Party elected certain politicians in to office in 2010 with the hope that Congress would begin to change its tune, and take back many of the heinous laws and regs that have been enacted over the last few decades.
They have not done that. The Republican leadership has spit in the Tea Party’s eye. They stayed the common course of weak-kneed politicking. They did no harm, but they also did not fix anything. And in fact helped screw up a few things along the way – budget, debt deal, defense bill, NLRB, FCC, EPA, etc.
The conservative members of the R party see Romney as the inside-\party-man. Romney\Obama Care is his deathknell. We refuse to support someone Obama looks up to.
Hi William,
Things are fine. Thanks for asking. And I hope you are well.
ABC ran it to knock down Newt no doubt. But solely to help Romney, who is the right wingers only hope. To call ABC liberal is preposterous. Their parent company sells weapons to the government for God’s sake.
I think Obama will mop the floor with either one of them.
Kinda makes me think the GOP had no intention of unseating Obama. The best they can do is the guy who lost to McCain in 2008? And who is far further to the left of McCain?