South Carolina Shuffles The Deck - The Road to White House - Election 2012 - Week Three

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Sunday, 22 January 2012 12:22

Written by Janet Walker

Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House, brought down the gavel on naysayers with his remarkable come from behind victory in Saturday’s South Carolina Presidential primary.

Gingrich, who took his share of hits this week as primetime news provided a preview of coming attractions, roared back as South Carolina voters delivered a whopping 40.4% of the votes in what many considered the first wave of the southern tide.

Mitt Romney, who entered in this hotly contested GOP presidential race as the man to beat, left South Carolina with a bitter pill to swallow as he captured only 27.8% of the voters, a stunning 12.7% loss.

Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania Senator, took third place with 17% of the votes and Texas Representative Ron Paul fourth with 13%. Texas Governor Rick Perry, who officially ended his campaign, placed fifth with .04%.

This past week proved to be a difficult one for the GOP Presidential hopefuls with the pack thinning, to four, as Gov. Perry abruptly ended his campaign on the eve of the South Carolina debates and final numbers from the Iowa Caucuses tearing a win from former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s victory column and handing it to the junior candidate Rick Santorum.

With Florida’s Primary a week away and with it a must win for both Gingrich and Romney, voters in the Sunshine State, and the rest of the nation, can expect a week of hard hitting campaigning, salacious tidbits to whet the appetite for destruction, and when Floridians cast their votes, at minimum a separation as the challengers spar for dominance knowing the next time the candidates see the Sunshine State it will be to capture the title of Republican Presidential Candidate at Augusts GOP Convention in Tampa Bay.