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I'm officially endorsing Newt Gingrich for president today. Was going to wait until after Florida, but see no reason to delay. We need Newt to win in South Carolina and Florida to stop any possible momentum building up for the establishment big government, statist, abortionist RINO!!

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has gained popularity in South Carolina in recent days and is now in a dead heat with Mitt Romney in the Palmetto state, according to a new poll. Gingrich leads in the latest American Research Group (ARG) poll, conducted January 17-18, with 33 percent. Romney finishes close behind with 32 percent, while Rep. Ron Paul is in third with 19 percent. Former Sen. Rick Santorum earned 9 percent support. Romney heads into South Carolina's January 21 primary as the clear frontrunner after virtually tying for first place in the Iowa caucuses and finishing first in...

Raleigh, N.C. – Newt Gingrich led Mitt Romney 34-28 in PPP's South Carolina polling last night, the first of what will be three nights of tracking. Ron Paul at 15%, Rick Santorum at 14%, Rick Perry at 5%, and Buddy Roemer at 3% round out the field. This is not a case of Romney imploding. His support has been pretty steady in the 28- 30% range in our South Carolina polling so far. But Gingrich has risen from 23% to 34% over the last two weeks, benefiting from declining support for Santorum and also from undecided voters moving into his...

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich has now surged ahead of Mitt Romney in the final Rasmussen Reports survey of the South Carolina Republican Primary race with the vote just two days away. The latest telephone survey of Likely GOP Primary Voters in the state finds Gingrich with 33% support to Romney’s 31%. Two days ago, before the last debate, it was Romney by 14 percentage points. Texas Congressman Ron Paul now runs third with 15% of the vote, followed by former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum at 11%. Paul's support is steady while Santorum's support has dropped five points since Monday....

Waiting on Perry to take podium any moment! He will endorse Newt!

South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Dick Harpootlian objected earlier in the week on MSNBC to today’s Republican primary debate. Unlike the rest of America, he was not just objecting to the concept of having the watch the same candidates of the past year or so talk about the same things for another two hours — he considered it objectionable to have a debate on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and “ignore” the holiday. On tonight’s Bill O’Reilly, Harpootlian began to make the case, but was promptly silenced, jaw agape, as O’Reilly reminded him that the Democrats in his state...

Newt Gingrich's fluent, policy-rich performances in the early debates, laced with derision for the media's attempts to question the Republican candidates, propelled him to the front of the GOP pack in early December. His command of the stage here in Myrtle Beach for the 16th (yep, there have been that many, and the next is in Charleston on Thursday) could just be the lifeline he needs to achieve the task he has set himself - overcoming Mitt Romney's clear lead in the South Carolina polls to win the state on Saturday. Romney was under pressure over releasing his tax returns...

Newt Gingrich apparently won Monday night’s debate on Fox News, but likely this is a case of a last-second touchdown when you are down by two touchdowns. Seth Leibsohn of National Review Online gave the night to Newt: “When he is right, he is great. The ongoing problem is when he is wrong. But tonight he was right — about a lot, and said it better than anyone.” Newt showed his Tea Party side: I think it’s very important for us to look at job creation. As a young member of Congress, I worked with President Ronald Reagan. We passed...

Frank Lunz was on the FOX Post Debate Analysis last night after South Carolina Debate. He made the statement that in 16 years of following Debates, that was the first time he'd ever seen a candidate get a Standing Ovation. Newt did not just get a Standing "O" from his supporters but, by-and-large from the entire crowd when he defended his comment about Barack Obama being the "Food Stamp President" and his stance on young Blacks needing a work ethic rather than government assistance. Newt didn't just "knock it out of the park" once last night. He "knocked it out...

GOP Debate

Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul picked up an endorsement from popular South Carolina State Senator Tom Davis (R-Beaufort) Sunday. Mr. Davis is a popular Tea Party Republican in South Carolina, and he has been critical of front running Republican candidate Mitt Romney also, so his vote could sway some last minute undecided voters towards Mr. Paul in the upcoming South Carolina Republican primary election. According to the Public Polling Policy poll of South Carolina voters released Friday shows 30 percent of the voters identify themselves as members of the Tea Party. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich did the best among...

The latest Insider Advantage / Newsmax poll of likely South Carolina voters, taken on Sunday, shows Mitt Romney opening up a commanding 11-point lead… and that was before Jon Huntsman dropped out of the race and endorsed Romney. Hell, Huntsman’s still a point ahead of Rick Perry in this poll. Mitt Romney - 32 Newt Gingrich - 21 Ron Paul - 14 Rick Santorum – 13 Jon Huntsman – 6 Rick Perry – 5 Strangely, according to the poll breakdown, Newt Gingrich scored exactly zero among the youngest cohort of voters, ages 18-29. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum were tied...

Presidential candidate Rick Perry's criticism of Mitt Romney's business past has cost him the support of a prominent South Carolina Republican. Investment fund executive and top GOP donor Barry Wynn told The Associated Press Thursday that he's leaving the Perry fold to endorse Romney. Wynn says he was irritated by Perry's attacks on Romney's time at the helm of the private equity firm Bain Capital. As Wynn put it, "It's like fingernails on the chalkboard." Perry struck hard this week at Romney's work at Bain Capital. The firm sometimes turned big profits even as companies it invested in went under...

While Newt Gingrich campaign staffers are calling such talk premature, there are indications that should the former House Speaker bow out of the GOP race, he would throw his support behind rising Rick Santorum in a last-ditch effort to stop frontrunner Mitt Romney. Multiple South Carolina sources affiliated with Santorum's campaign said Gingrich's campaign has contacted Santorum's campaign to discuss endorsing the former Pennsylvania senator should he drop out. One source, speaking to Patch on the condition they not be identified, paraphrased Gingrich's stance as delivered by high level campaign staff this way: "If it can't be me, I want...

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich hosts a town hall-style meeting in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

Gov. Nikki Haley announced her endorsement of Mitt Romney in mid-December. The Republican presidential candidate, regarded to be somewhat moderate, earned her Tea Party support because “he knows how the private economy works, how to fix it, and most importantly how to solve problems,” Haley said in her announcement. The fact that Romney knows how to donate to campaigns might have more to do with it, though. His “Free and Strong America” political action committee donated $36,000 to Haley’s campaign in 2010. And she’s not alone, either. Romney has, to date, received 35 endorsements from politicians his PAC donated to...

COLUMBIA - In South Carolina, the governor's mansion is on the grounds of a former arsenal that was burned down by the Union army during the Civil War. These days, that attack in the 1860s seems a metaphor for the besieged tenure of Republican Governor Nikki Haley. Elected last year as a symbol of the conservative Tea Party's rise in U.S. politics, the embattled Haley has had a rocky transition from government critic to government executive -- and potential player in the 2012 presidential campaign.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, interrupted an interview with a reporter Saturday in Charleston to speak with two elementary-school age children that she quickly labeled "little Democrats." "We are leaving no stone unturned," she said once she returned to the interview. Wasserman Schultz and the rest of the Democratic Party will have to turn over quite a few stones to make headway in South Carolina, which has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter in 1976 - 35 years ago.

Drudge links to the ARG Polling Press Release: Herman Cain leads the South Carolina Republican presidential primary with 26%. Cain is followed closely by Mitt Romney at 25%. Rick Perry is third at 15%. In July, Romney was leading with 25%, followed by Sarah Palin at 16%, Michele Bachmann at 13%, and Herman Cain at 10%. Among likely primary voters considering themselves to be Republicans, Cain and Romney are tied at 27% each, followed by Perry at 15%. Among Tea Party supporters, Cain leads with 35%, followed by Perry at 16% and Romney at 15%. Among those saying they are...

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