Mitt Romney's South Carolina Nightmare: What Keeps Him Up Late

ROCK HILL, S.C. -- Mitt Romney and his team left nothing to chance here on Wednesday, and it's a good thing, because they are looking over their shoulder at a Newt Gingrich who not only isn't dead but still has an outside chance to pull off a huge surprise in the South Carolina primary.

Tuesday, Romney's advance team fell down and delivered him to an embarrassingly empty ballroom. The TV pictures were devastating.

Wednesday, here at Winthrop University, the Romneyites assembled a crowd of more than 1,000, complete with energetic college kids and suburbanites from Greater Charlotte.

"This looks like an actual presidential campaign event," said a veteran political reporter from one of the networks.

Meanwhile, word is that the Romney side has bought a last-minute inventory of TV airtime for 60-second spots -- presumably to attack Newt, who remains poised, like a drafting NASCAR driver, to make a last-minute move, pushed by his debate performances and his overall feisty demeanor.

And here is the nightmare scenario for Mitt: Iowa officials on Thursday will certify their official caucus results. In theory, Romney could lose his eight-vote victory there. It remains possible that Gingrich will catch him or at least come very close here in South Carolina. If both those things happen, we could be in for a very long campaign.

Other candidates are losing steam.

Rick Santorum is slowly dropping in the polls and not making the sale here despite endorsements from pastors. The Southern white working class this year cares less about culture than jobs, taxes and what they regard as government mismanagement.

Rumors flew Wednesday -- and were quickly denied -- that Rick Perry will drop out at any moment.

Which leaves seemingly indestructible Newt, who has already been written off three times in this presidential campaign and who is still in the game.

Gingrich's durability is a testament to three things: his gamecock-like clawing and scratching resilience (they like that kind of thing here); his willingness to indirectly touch the nerve of race (which conservative voters here like not because of race per se, but because to them it's a test of a politician's willingness to take on the feds and political correctness); and Romney's failure to connect with the base in any place other than his second home of New Hampshire.

Also, Newt is a Southerner, and that matters in South Carolina.

At the rally in Rock Hill, Romney attacked Gingrich as a foe of free enterprise. With another debate Thursday and voting on Saturday, it is going to be a very long 72 hours for the former governor of Massachusetts and would-be president of the United States.

Comments

[rbenjamin]

03:38 PM on 01/19/2012

Looks like Romney is pinching himself and finding that he is already awake. SC Republicans are taking another look at him and getting skittish about both his reliability and electability.

[treadway123]

04:52 PM on 01/20/2012

He could have won S.C so easily, just put his tax returns out there for the past few years! I don't see anyone finding anything wrong with Newts! He paid 31.7% of tax's. I think there is some thing in it that scares Romney to death, because he'd rather lose S.C than show them!

[authorized-user]

01:17 PM on 01/19/2012

-------------------The guy that really can't sleep anymore is Reince Priebus.------
He took a ton of money from the Koch's and other special interests and is already out of viable candidates.
Where can the GOP chairman find another viable candidate now to fill the empty spaces created by the failure of all the current candidates????
-------Rance will be busier than a one legged man in an as* kicking contest trying to find an acceptable candidate in time for 11/12------------

[terry63]

01:09 PM on 01/19/2012

It does not matter. Either one of these guys will only ensure another four years of Obama. Romney is a flip flop artist who stood for one thing as Governer and know turns a 180 on all his political history. He is Cannon Fodder, for the current Administration. Newt, Has a little history, as speaker, most of it bad.This reminds me of when John Kerry, ran aginst Bush. everybody wanted change but , nobody wanted it that bad.

[Heru1]

12:48 PM on 01/19/2012

Southern whites like to hear racist talk not because they are racist but because it shows a willingness to stand up to the federal government??? Is there no limit to your pathological denial???

[Heru1]

12:46 PM on 01/19/2012

Romney walks like he is wearing an Edgar suit

[Gestas]

12:35 PM on 01/19/2012

Not to Worry....The Republicans use a Rotation System...And it's Willards turn...When it's your turn the Sheep just vote for you.. Why else would someone like G.W. Bush end up in the White House.

[Terri Skau]

12:04 PM on 01/19/2012

Here I'll take a stab at it...Could it be his "Conscious"

[edwcorey]

11:45 AM on 01/19/2012

These guys claim not to believe in evolution, which seems unreasonable because they're all pretty slimy.

[Harold Young]

10:59 AM on 01/19/2012

Can we please, PLEASE quit calling Newt Gingrich a "Southerner." He isn't. He's from PA. He was a faculty member at a small southern college. He got elected here because he made a home here, but he is not--AT ALL--from the South. Thanks.

--Irritated Southerner

[Jim bob]

12:53 PM on 01/19/2012

So can we call him a carpetbagger? I think we should. McCain was, and he has been getting away with it for many years now. It's time to call them what they are...

[Nardwilly]

10:46 AM on 01/19/2012

which conservative voters here like not because of race per se, but because to them it's a test of a politician's willingness to take on the feds and political correctness

No, they like it because of race. They are not willing to proclaim discrimination legal, but everytime minorites are denigrated it comforts them. They and their parents were not wrong to terrorize Negroes.

[etherboss]

10:34 AM on 01/19/2012

I'm rooting for Ron Paul. He's easily the most ridiculous.

[den1953]

10:24 AM on 01/19/2012

Apparently Evangelicals can't create jobs either?

[etherboss]

10:20 AM on 01/19/2012

Given this cast of despicable characters, it's hard to decide who I despise most.

[morganplains]

10:15 AM on 01/19/2012

Hard to believe that voters want a President who settlers his money in overseas accounts.

[urownexperience]

10:10 AM on 01/19/2012

OH NO! Romney might have to blow a lot of money capturing thr nomination. I was hoping the great Mormon had some money left over to supply Evangelicals with Valium.