Gingrich gets decisive win in South Carolina primary
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Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich displays an autographed sign during a campaign stop Saturday at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville, S.C., on South Carolina's Republican primary election day.
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CHARLESTON, S.C. -- After one of the most tumultuous weeks in recent political history, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich swept to a come-from-behind victory in the South Carolina primary Saturday night that upended and threatened to prolong the Republican nomination fight.
The Georgian's margin in exit polls was so comfortable that television networks and the Associated Press were able to call his victory shortly after polls closed in a state whose GOP primary winner has gone on to capture the nomination in every election since 1980.
With more than 90 percent of the ballots counted, Mr. Gingrich had a strong double-digit lead, with 40 percent of the vote, compared to 27 percent for former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 17 percent for former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and 13 percent for Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Just over a week ago, it was Mr. Romney who had a double-digit advantage in surveys here.
The contest now moves on to Florida, where Mr. Romney, who was toppled from his front-running position almost overnight, still holds financial and logistical advantages. But he had similar advantages in the Palmetto State as the campaigning moved here from New Hampshire. After lagging showings there and in Iowa, the Gingrich campaign appeared to be an also-ran just 10 days ago. But strong showings in two debates, always the lifeblood of the unorthodox Gingrich campaign, along with repeated stumbles by Mr. Romney produced a tectonic shift in the Republican landscape.
"It's not that I am a good debater, it's that I articulate the deepest felt values of the American people,'' Mr. Gingrich said as he celebrated his victory over a GOP field that had been pared last week by the successive withdrawals of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
He cast his startling win as a vindication of ordinary Americans over elites in Washington and New York who do not share their values. In a sharp attack on President Barack Obama, he contended that the November election would be a contest between "American exceptionalism and the radicalism of Saul Alinsky.
"President Obama is a president so weak that he makes Jimmy Carter look strong,'' he said after an election in which exit polls found that the factor most important to Republican voters was who could best take on the president.
"This race is getting to be even more interesting,'' Mr. Romney said as he opened his concession speech. "This is a hard fight because there's so much worth fighting for. ... We still have a long way to go and a lot of work to do. Tomorrow we're going to move on to Florida."
The gyrations of the last week were a microcosm of a Republican race that has produced a cascade of successive front-runners, some of whom are no longer campaigning.
Mr. Gingrich's bid appeared all but over last summer, when his coffers were nearly empty and much of his senior staff resigned. But he kept showing up at the long line of debates that have driven this contest, and a succession of strong outings allowed him to take the polling lead in Iowa by early December. But then he came under a concerted multimillion-dollar assault from the Romney campaign and its allies, as well as from Mr. Paul and Mr. Perry (who would nonetheless go on to endorse him when he left the race this week). He was effectively left for dead again. But in the final days of the New Hampshire campaign, he appeared to have found an effective line of attack against Mr. Romney, pressing him to release his tax returns and continually questioning his business practices as head of the investment firm Bain Capital. His own campaign appeared to be rocked by a sharply critical interview from his second wife, Marianne Gingrich, who claimed he had pressed her to have "an open marriage.''
But Mr. Gingrich, in the sharpest example of a tactic he has pursued throughout the debates, attacked the moderator of a debate Thursday night when he was asked about his marital history. The assault on the news media won applause in the debate hall and resonated beyond as exit polls showed Mr. Gingrich had a distinct advantage with voters who decided in the last days before the primary.
The results also reflected repeated missteps by Mr. Romney, particularly in a series of equivocating answers on whether and when he would release his tax returns.
Mr. Romney rebutted the attacks on his business background Saturday night, essentially saying Mr. Gingrich was shooting the Democrats' bullets for them.
"Over the past few weeks, we have seen a frontal assault on free enterprise. That's a mistake for our party and our nation,'' he said. "Those who pick up the weapons of the left today will find them turned against us tomorrow.''
Mr. Santorum vowed to press on as well, releasing his campaign schedule for Florida soon after the polls closed. He planned to campaign in Ft. Lauderdale today, and he told CNN Saturday night that he was already planning campaign appearances in Colorado and other states farther along the primary and caucus trail.
"Three states, three winners, what a great country,'' he said at his election night headquarters at The Citadel. He alluded to the belated report, released two days before the balloting here, that he had actually won in the first contest in Iowa despite trailing by eight votes in the tally released by Iowa Republicans on caucus night.
Last night he made the point that Mr. Gingrich, a former Georgia congressman, had won in his backyard and the former Massachusetts governor had prevailed in his home territory. He contended that Florida would provide a more even playing field as the campaign moves on to its next phase.
In his speech, Mr. Paul professed to be encouraged by his fourth place result, insisting that while he trailed his rivals his cause was steadily attracting more attention and support. "We got four to five times more votes than we did four years ago,'' he said. "There's every reason to be encouraged.''
First Published January 22, 2012 12:00 am
