Now, It's On To South Carolina

With so little drama last night, the candidates and press turned very quickly to South Carolina, which the AP says "is shaping up to be a dogfight."

And the stakes are high: After winning New Hampshire, Mitt Romney became the first non-incumbent Republican to win the primary season's first two contests, so as Bloomberg puts it, South Carolina, which votes Jan. 21, may be the last chance opponents have to derail Romney.

NPR's Debbie Elliott told our Newscast unit that South Carolina has correctly picked the eventual candidate every time since 1980 and Romney is facing a more conservative electorate, which is being heavily courted by Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.

"All candidates are campaigning in the state today," said Debbie. Romney will appear with Gov. Nikki Haley, who was elected with Tea Party support.

With 10 days to go, Bloomberg says the battle will be fierce. Romney is already facing tough ads about his days running Bain Capital, which Perry has painted as "vulture capitalists."

Here's a preview of the kinds of attacks you'll likely hear:

"Texas Governor Rick Perry, who will be making what may be his last stand in South Carolina, hit that theme at a town hall meeting yesterday in a Fort Mill retirement community.

"Companies such as Bain 'come in and loot people's jobs, loot their pensions, loot their ability to take care of their families,' Perry said. 'They're just vultures sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick. And then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton.'

We'll leave you with some other headlines that look forward to South Carolina:

— Politico says Romney's South Carolina strategy is to "divide and conquer."

— If the polls are to be believed, it may prove a fortuitous move: A CNN/Time poll earlier this month found that Santorum and Gingrich were splitting the vote and leaving Romney with a sizable lead.

— "A rougher tone and a tougher ideological terrain await" Romney, writes the AP.

— ABC News takes a look at Evangelical voters in South Carolina, which they say may be more important to Santorum than they were in his surprising showing in Iowa.

— Will Perry's Southern roots help him in the Palmetto State? The Washington Post says he's counting on it and eating some grits to send the message that "I'm one of you."

— Talking Points Memo talks to the South Carolina GOP chair, who said its primary will be the 2012 "reset button."

"Our voters are fiercely independent and pretty fickle," GOP Chair Chad Connelly told TPM. "They watch what happens in Iowa, they watch what happens in New Hampshire. They may take that under advisement kind of thing, but they're going to make their own decisions."

View the original article here

Romney Concedes 'Uphill Climb' In South Carolina

WASHINGTON January 11, 2012, 07:29 am ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Gov. Mitt Romney is conceding he's got "an uphill climb" in South Carolina, where he finished fourth in 2008, despite season-opening victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.

But Romney tells CBS's "This Morning" he's confident about South Carolina, saying "I know we're going to push forward."

Romney voiced regret that his fellow Republicans have made his record as a venture capitalist an issue, but said it isn't gaining any traction. He said, "They tried the same line here in New Hampshire and it fell extremely flat."

Romney said he has a record of starting businesses and creating tens of thousands of jobs. And he said that if elected, he wouldn't hesitate to apply his business experience in an all-out campaign to shrink the size of the federal government.

In an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," he said, ""I don't know if we can win South Carolina,"

With respect to Bain Capital, Romney told ABC he feels that people want someone with business experience in the Oval Office. "It's working for my benefit," he said.

Asked about comments Vice President Joe Biden made suggesting that venture capitalists care more about making money than employees left behind in business reorganizations, he noted that Biden and President Barack Obama oversaw the federal rescue of General Motors and Chrysler and that plants were closed down in the process, as well as automobile dealerships.

Speaking about his own company, Romney said, "Every time we had a reduction in employment it was designed to make the business more successful and to grow it."

Romney's New Hampshire win will make it tough for his GOP opponents in South Carolina and elsewhere.

Romney's back-to-back wins give him big momentum for the next contests. He won in Iowa last week.

The campaign has raised the money to go the distance through one primary state after another.

View the original article here

Now, It's On To South Carolina

With so little drama last night, the candidates and press turned very quickly to South Carolina, which the AP says "is shaping up to be a dogfight."

And the stakes are high: After winning New Hampshire, Mitt Romney became the first non-incumbent Republican to win the primary season's first two contests, so as Bloomberg puts it, South Carolina, which votes Jan. 21, may be the last chance opponents have to derail Romney.

NPR's Debbie Elliott told our Newscast unit that South Carolina has correctly picked the eventual candidate every time since 1980 and Romney is facing a more conservative electorate, which is being heavily courted by Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and Rick Santorum.

"All candidates are campaigning in the state today," said Debbie. Romney will appear with Gov. Nikki Haley, who was elected with Tea Party support.

With 10 days to go, Bloomberg says the battle will be fierce. Romney is already facing tough ads about his days running Bain Capital, which Perry has painted as "vulture capitalists."

Here's a preview of the kinds of attacks you'll likely hear:

"Texas Governor Rick Perry, who will be making what may be his last stand in South Carolina, hit that theme at a town hall meeting yesterday in a Fort Mill retirement community.

"Companies such as Bain 'come in and loot people's jobs, loot their pensions, loot their ability to take care of their families,' Perry said. 'They're just vultures sitting out there on the tree limb waiting for the company to get sick. And then they swoop in, they eat the carcass, they leave with that, and they leave the skeleton.'

We'll leave you with some other headlines that look forward to South Carolina:

— Politico says Romney's South Carolina strategy is to "divide and conquer."

— If the polls are to be believed, it may prove a fortuitous move: A CNN/Time poll earlier this month found that Santorum and Gingrich were splitting the vote and leaving Romney with a sizable lead.

— "A rougher tone and a tougher ideological terrain await" Romney, writes the AP.

— ABC News takes a look at Evangelical voters in South Carolina, which they say may be more important to Santorum than they were in his surprising showing in Iowa.

— Will Perry's Southern roots help him in the Palmetto State? The Washington Post says he's counting on it and eating some grits to send the message that "I'm one of you."

— Talking Points Memo talks to the South Carolina GOP chair, who said its primary will be the 2012 "reset button."

"Our voters are fiercely independent and pretty fickle," GOP Chair Chad Connelly told TPM. "They watch what happens in Iowa, they watch what happens in New Hampshire. They may take that under advisement kind of thing, but they're going to make their own decisions."

View the original article here