Newt won because...

[MyUncle]

The S.C. vote for Newt was fueled by his responses in the debates to charges of racism and "open marriage" advocacy. He got two raucousness, unprecedented standing ovations when he attached the question, the premise of the questions, the questioner and the media. BTW, he never answeredthe questions/allegations.

IMO without those moments, Newt loses.

The SC vote was a backlash by the SC voters. They were not going to let the media pick their winner, the voter is. Many of Newt's votes were a statement to back up a family member who was attached by someone outside the family.

CNN, ABC and Juan Williams gave Newt a giant, ribbon wrapped gift.

Florida is going to be the first test on a neutral court and will determine the nominee.

[LonePirate]

1. I think Caribou Barbie's endorsement helped as well.

Her mindless followers undoubtedly heeded her call to vote for him to continue the primary season.

[MyUncle]

2. Yes, Palin helped him.

Perfect Newt storm...

[think]

10. Newt should reward her by asking Palin to be his VP /nt

[renie408]

18. Or next wife. n/t

[Atman]

3. Agreed, except for that Florida is hardly neutral.

It's just another basket of Southern Fried Crazy. Take it from this former Floridian. I don't even recognize my old home anymore.

[valerief]

4. Well, that and proprietary software electronic voting machines, from which we'll never know how

votes are actually tabulated.

[coalition_unwilling]

5. They (SC whites) have never gotten over Sherman burning their state to the ground

back in 1865. This South Carolina racist dog-whistle campaign is just a footnote to that.

[AlinPA]

6. He won because the republican base likes him. He is rude, racist and hateful. Perfect fit.

[graywarrior]

7. He won because

[kurt_cagle]

8. Newt takes the South

Certainly the big three of South Carolina, Florida and Georgia, probably Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee, NC and VA likely tossups.

Romney is a Yankee, even if he is supported by the Texas oil establishment - the Mormon issue is a factor, but regionalism trumps religion here. Romney takes most of the Northeast, Texas, California. Gingrich takes the Rockies except for Utah, and the Midwest gets split up between Romney and Gingrich, with Santorum taking Indiana. Ron Paul slowly accumulates a lot of 2nd and 3rd place wins, not enough to gain the nomination, but enough to be able to be a power broker.

Way I see it, no one comes into the convention with a clear majority, perhaps not even a plurality. In the end, I still think it will be Romney with the largest absolute vote count - outside of the deep south most Republicans despise Gingrich nearly as much as they do Obama - but there will be a lot of horse trading at the convention itself.

All of which is probably good news for Obama. He's actually managing at this stage to be positioning himself as the adult in this election (which is even funnier given that he's younger than all but Santorum), and while support for Obama will likely be tepid compared to 2008, too many democrats are energized to come to the polls for other reasons this year.

[onenote]

12. Going to be hard for Newt to take Virginia since he's not on the ballot

and Virginia doesn't provide a mechanism for write-ins in primary elections.
Florida will be interesting...based on momentum, you'd have to say Gingrich was the odds-on pick for Florida. But there are a couple of wild cards -- first is the fact that a very significant portion of the Florida repub electorate already has cast their ballots, something that almost certainly favors Romney; second, the way this race has been going, it would be foolish not to at least allow for the possibility that the pendulum will begin to swing yet again. The knives that were out for Newt before are coming out again. Repub pundits are beginning to demand that the repub establishment folks -- governors, senators, etc. start publicly endorsing Mitt in an effort to derail Gingrich. Will it happen? I've stopped making predictions at this point, but I wouldn't rule it out.

[think]

9. Thought is was because Romney forgot his lapel pin:

[onenote]

11. More to the point it was that Gingrich came across as feisty and Romney didn't

South Carolina repubs, like most repubs, care more about defeating Obama than they care about anything else. Romney's perceived front-runner status comes from the fact that when you take into account independent voters, he seemed to be the more electable candidate. But the debates provided a contrast: feisty Gingrich willing to take on anyone and everyone and "maybe" Romney -- the guy who smiles, is polite and doesn't look like he could hold his own in a fight. South Carolinians, unsurprisingly, swooned over the "mad as hell and not going to take it anymore" candidate.

[customerserviceguy]

13. The tea partiers

finally decided that he was their champion. It took some doing, but the way he trashed Willard and turned the debates totally his way convinced them.

Saw Joey Scar on MTP today, he says that Gingrich is not a conservative, you can Google up his record and it proves that. So--Romney's argument (as expressed through his surrogate) is that Newt is also a flip-flopper, but that Mitt is 'better' at it. It's a pretty sad place to be for the former front runner.

[grantcart]

14. Even Republicans don't like Mitt Romney

We are just finding out how MUCH they don't like him.


More than a hypocritical dellusional adulterer.


That's a lot of dislike.

[spin]

15. Newt won because Romney is a loser...

and the Republicans know that Obama will steamroll him if he gets the nomination. Newt won because he is NOT Romney.

The establishment running the Republican party wants Mitt to be their guy because he is part of the 1% just like they are. It's also Mitt's turn. Last election it was McCain's turn and it was Bob Dole's turn when he lost to Clinton.

Newt is a loose cannon and the Republican establishment is scared to death of him as he might upset their apple cart. To win the nomination Newt will not only have to defeat super rich Mitt but he will have to beat the Republican Party's efforts to sabotage him.

[MyUncle]

17. Enjoy your stay....

[renie408]

19. A) spellcheck is your friend and B) WHY do you guys keep harping on something that has been proven

over and over to be a myth? Pretend I am typing really slowly. There. Is. No. Liberal. Media. Bias. None. Nada. Zippity Do Dah. If you think there is and have something OTHER than yours or someone else's anecdotal evidence to corroborate your claims... bring it.

http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/article/100353/Debunking-the-Myth-of-Liberal-Media-Bias.aspx


http://news.yahoo.com/liberal-media-bias-myth-222100303.html

There are only about a million more links to stories debunking the liberal media bias myth, but since you will never read them because *gasp* you might actually have to start thinking for yourself, I am not going to bother cutting and pasting. As previously stated...Enjoy your stay.

[renie408]

20. Let's face it...I hate to say this, but Newt won because South Carolina Republicans are racist.

And Newt is a lot whiter than Mitt. Mitt has all that suspicious Mormon stuff going on. Besides, Newt LOOKS more like a South Carolina Republican than Mitt. Mitt looks like a Hollywood Republican. It's the hair and the fake tan, I think. And Newt is loud and nasty and mean spirited. And chubby. South Carolinians recognize those qualities.

[MyUncle]

21. I stand by my original assertion.

[a1webb]

22. dont have to register for party affiliation in s.c.

newt won in s.c. for one reason and one reason alone

didn't have to be a registered republican to vote in that primary....

anyone could vote...anyone with any political agenda...trust me i know from first hand experience