This weekend, the good people of South Carolina voted for their choice of the GOP presidential candidates. Here are the results:
Newt Gingrich – 243,153 – 40.4%
Mitt Romney – 167,279 – 27.8%
Rick Santorum – 102,055 – 17%
Ron Paul – 77,993 – 13%
Gingrich was expected to do well on Saturday. A combination of a solid debate performance last time around coupled with the GOP’s never-ending search for a non-Romney, Newt’s performance in South Carolina surprised no one.
The “open marriage” allegations on Newt won’t matter. People supporting Newt already know he is scum and have chosen to support him anyway. Allegations like this will have little-to-no effect on Newt in the primary. If he were to somehow get the nomination, Obama would be all over this issue.
Expect this race to get ugly very quickly. We’ve had 3 winners in 3 states. Super Tuesday is going to be a big deal this year, and for the next 4 or 5 weeks, the candidates will get vicious. Expect Romney and Santorum to push issues of character and Gingrich to try to convince people that he’s a conservative.
Romney isn’t the inevitable candidate. The fact that Romney has only won one of the three first states shows he’s not necessarily the inevitable candidate. He could still be it, but this race is still far from over.
Paul focusing on delegates. Ron Paul’s approach to winning the nomination is no secret, but it’s not understood by many. The trick is getting the delegates, and he seems to understand this. He’s got good support in places his opponents don’t. Unfortunately finishing fourth in South Carolina doesn’t get anybody’s attention.
A Gingrich win helped Paul because it kept the delegates from going to Romney. With Gingrich surging this past week yet mathematically unable to win the nomination before the convention, any delegates that don’t go to Romney help Paul.
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