South Carolina Primary voting closes, first place battle between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich - Polidicks

[highlight][h2]Newt Gingrich wins with large lead[/h2][/highlight] [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/M5otf.jpg[/IMG] Source: [URL="http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/21/politics/south-carolina-primary/index.html?hpt=hp_t1"]CNN[/URL] [release]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) -- Newt Gingrich had all the momentum on Saturday as South Carolinians were voting in their state's Republican primary. A poll released Saturday morning showed the former House speaker's surge over the last week carrying him past Mitt Romney, who had been the front-runner in the state all month. The American Research Group poll shows Gingrich leading Romney by a 40% to 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. Voters casting ballots in South Carolina Owner 'didn't know' about Mitt and Newt Gingrich hams it up at ham house "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. Gingrich and Romney were both campaigning in the conservative Upstate on Saturday with Gingrich presenting himself as the conservative alternative to the "Massachusetts moderate" Romney while Romney continued to attack Gingrich as he has over the past week as polls tightened. At his Greenville campaign headquarters, Romney launched a new line of attack, calling for Gingrich to release details on his work for government-backed mortgage giant Freddie Mac, an institution unpopular with conservatives. "Didn't he say he was going to release information about his relationship there?" Romney asked. "Let's see what report he wrote for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, what his conclusions were and what the contract looked like. I thought he said he was going to do that." Later making calls at a phone bank inside the headquarters, Romney gave an idea of how he sees the race on one of the five calls he made: "This could be real close," he said. Romney's campaign also has been pressing the former House speaker to release the full report from a 1990s ethics investigation that led to his downfall in Congress. Gingrich was reprimanded by the House and ordered to pay a $300,000 penalty in 1997 for violating an ethics rule. This week, Romney's campaign sent Gingrich a cake marking the 15th anniversary of that reprimand, according to a Romney campaign source. A picture provided by that source shows the wording "Happy 15th anniversary, Mr. Speaker! ... Now release the records," written in icing on the cake. An anticipated run-in between the two front-runners didn't materialize at a Greenville restaurant where both had booked events at the same time. Romney showed up about 45 minutes early and had left before Gingrich arrived. Upon arriving, Gingrich asked, "Where's Mitt? I thought he was going to stay and maybe we'd have a little debate this morning." Santorum will move on to Florida Santorum will move on to Florida Showdown for S.C. primary Strong thunderstorms were rolling through the state on Saturday and the state election commission said turnout across the state ranged from very light in some areas to very heavy in others. 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," state treasurer Curtis Loftis, a leading Romney surrogate, said Friday. "Nobody is going to deny that." A Gingrich victory in South Carolina would be another remarkable swing for the former speaker's presidential campaign. He came out of nowhere to top national polls in late fall on the strength of debate performances, but dropped again ahead of the Iowa caucuses as opponents hammered him in Iowa ads. "Gingrich has been harder to kill than Rasputin," Republican strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos said Saturday. "He has been dead three times in this campaign, and ... the guy keeps coming back." 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 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.[/release] [URL="http://us.cnn.com/election/2012/primaries/state/sc?hpt=hp_pc1"]Track the polling here[/URL]

I always thought Romney would win. Romney is a hell of a lot more electable than Newt. If Gingrich wins, I think it will lower the chances of a GOP candidate in the whitehouse by a whole lot.

Most sites are projecting a Gingrich victory based on the exit polls. Let's see if Romney can pull off an upset.

ron paul 2012! .... :(

Newt Gingrich is ahead of this moment in time.

[QUOTE=The freeman;34332061]Newt Gingrich is ahead of this moment in time.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry, even time-travel won't make him a likable person.

Don't tell me South Carolina is going to be as dumb as Iowa, if not rigged.

[QUOTE=Atlascore;34332106]Romney/Paul 2012 [sp]If Obama dies or something[/sp][/QUOTE] Are you implying you want to assassinate Obama?!

hoping ginrich wins, he has less support around the country and obama will beat him by far. Romney has too many rebulican supporters

Ron Paul is so kawaii. Edit: Mitt looks sort of like Bruce Campbell, but Mitt is not a man.

[QUOTE=beanhead;34331833]ron paul 2012! .... :([/QUOTE] Don't worry, it's just one state. Florida is the big one - it's a "winner take all" state, its delegates aren't divided depending on how big a percentage gets of the votes. If Paul can win it, it's a big step up.

[QUOTE=Cone;34332117]I'm sorry, even time-travel won't make him a likable person.[/QUOTE] He got the first standing ovation at a Republican primary debate since Reagan.

The fact that Gingrich won in South Carolina just shows how absolutely stupid the Republican party is.

[QUOTE=Reimu;34332558]The fact that Gingrich won in South Carolina just shows how absolutely stupid the Republican party is.[/QUOTE] Why? (Hint: his views being different to yours is not the correct answer)

I had a feeling paul wasn't gonna get SC. He didn't seem to be even trying here.

[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;34332800]I had a feeling paul wasn't gonna get SC. He didn't seem to be even trying here.[/QUOTE] Paul wants to take down our massive military and SC has a strong military history. If I remember correctly, one of the two USMC training bases in the country are located there.

I'm really hoping Gingrich, and Santorum drop out of the race. I really want Ron to won.

What would compel a person to vote for Gingrich? Are they taking that "French Connection" attack ad seriously?

[QUOTE=Hidole555;34332866]What would compel a person to vote for Gingrich? Are they taking that "French Connection" attack ad seriously?[/QUOTE] South Carolina resident here. I've heard countless people say they like him because he understands Washington. :v:

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;34332814]Paul wants to take down our massive military and SC has a strong military history. If I remember correctly, one of the two USMC training bases in the country are located there.[/QUOTE] Yup. There's an army one in North Carolina too, an army base in Columbia, an army reserve base near Sumter, an air force base near Sumter, an air force reserve base in Charleston. It's probably exactly why he won the primary. That and most people I know would rather have Obama in, so when they went to vote today they voted somebody they figure would lose to him. I voted Herman Cain myself.

Wasn't Colbert running under Cain's name? I'm curious as to how many votes he has received.

Rick just drop out of the race, you mutilated a dead body then photographed it and hung the picture in your bedorom. Newt just drop out of the race too, you cheated on your two wives when they were terminally ill

[QUOTE=Frisk;34332997]Wasn't Colbert running under Cain's name? I'm curious as to how many votes he has received.[/QUOTE] More than Santorum from what I hear.

[QUOTE=Hidole555;34333026]More than Santorum from what I hear.[/QUOTE] Im not sure from where you are hearing that. Santorum currently has 18 percent of the vote.

Cain has about 3500 votes, Santorum 65000, and Newt 148000 for comparison.

[QUOTE=Reimu;34332558]The fact that Gingrich won in South Carolina just shows how absolutely stupid the Republican party is.[/QUOTE] They're so divided. A different candidate has won each of the primaries, and the frontrunner didn't win the election that usually ends up picking the winner.

[QUOTE=Reimu;34332558]The fact that Gingrich won in South Carolina just shows how absolutely [b]stupid[/b] the Republican party is.[/QUOTE] the republican party is not stupid in the slightest, the idiosyncrasies of the american political climate have made them some of the most brilliant cultural engineers in the world. "evil" is the word you're looking for

AHAhahaha what is that banner even [editline]January 21st, 2012[/editline] Hahahaha [IMG]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/7344169/condition.png[/IMG] hahahaha

The very thought of Gingrinch getting the nomination makes me want to smash my head through drywall.

[QUOTE=Emperor Scorpious II;34332345]Don't worry, it's just one state. Florida is the big one - it's a "winner take all" state, its delegates aren't divided depending on how big a percentage gets of the votes. If Paul can win it, it's a big step up.[/QUOTE]I thought Paul was skipping Florida [url]http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/01/ron-paul-will-not-contest-florida-110081.html[/url]