Last week at this time, Mitt Romney was the candidate conventional wisdom said would win. After a week-long assault on him by the media, his numbers started to slip. When an attack by the media on Newt Gingrich was foiled ahead of time by Matt Drudge, Gingrich was able to turn the attack around and made it about the media and the politics of personal destruction. Republicans in South Carolina responded very well to seeing Newt verbally skewer a Lefty Reporter on a spit at a debate on Thursday [see video].
Here is a table of the results:
| Candidate | Votes | Percent | Percent Behind Leader |
| Newt Gingrich | 243,153 | 40.4 | 0.0 |
| Mitt Romney | 167,279 | 27.8 | -12.6 |
| Rick Santorum | 102,055 | 17.0 | -23.4 |
| Ron Paul | 77,993 | 13.0 | -27.4 |
Who got how many delegates varies according to which website you visit. The Green Papers estimates that Gingrich will get twenty three and Romney will get two, and that assessment is, I think, a reasonable assumption at this point.
The estimated total delegate count so far is as follows:
31 Romney
26 Gingrich
10 Paul
08 Santorum
Before you watch the speeches, check out a précis on the Florida primary, the first primary in which only registered Republicans will be voting. I'm expecting a different dynamic in this state.
Speeches
The next primary is Florida, which will happen on Tuesday, January 31, 2012. Due to the the unfriendly voter demographics and the limited nature of Ron Paul's war chest, he will not be campaigning heavily here and will move on to the caucus states that are coming up in February and March before the March 6th Super Tuesday, when the nomination will likely become more or less evident.
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