Washingtonpost news updates: In South Carolina, a sharply tightened race

Saturday, February 4, 2012

In South Carolina, a sharply tightened race

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Gingrich surge makes a sharper, tighter race

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In South Carolina, a sharply tightened race

View Photo Gallery — January:?After the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary, the Republican presidential field dwindles as the South Carolina primary nears.

Text SizePrintE-mailReprints By Philip Rucker, David A. Fahrenthold and Karen Tumulty,

GREENVILLE, S.C. — There are just a few hours of voting left in South Carolina, where a crucial GOP primary could either help settle the race to be the Republican nominee — or throw it into confusion.

The dynamics of the race shifted in the last days before Saturday’s primary, with former House speaker Newt Gingrich (Ga.) surging after his aggressive performances in two televised debates.

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The Fix author Aaron Blake looks ahead to the South Carolina primary and how independent voters could play a big part.

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The number of presidential candidates was down to four at the CNN Republican debate in South Carolina. (Jan. 19)

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney now finds himself in a close contest with Gingrich. Some polls have even shown Romney behind Gingrich in South Carolina, where Romney once seemed poised for a victory that would make him the prohibitive favorite to win the GOP nomination.

The choice is now up to South Carolina’s famously prophetic electorate, which has managed to choose the eventual GOP nominee in every contest since 1980.

Danny Causey, who has run a popular neighborhood barbershop in Mount Pleasant for decades, said his clients seem more unsettled in their choices than in any election year he can remember.

“It’s kind of difficult this year. Everybody I talk to, they want to, they want a change from the president we got. They just don’t know which way to go,” he said. “Some of the ones they like the best, they think they don’t have a chance.” So Causey sensed a shift toward Romney, despite all the hoopla for Gingrich.

Already, strange things are happening in South Carolina. Just as light becomes distorted the closer it gets to a black hole, so does politics turn odd at the chaotic edge of an important primary.

On Friday night, for example, Romney — either as a sign of personal growth, or of exhaustion — finally located his zany inner comedian. He made a joke about the cheap Naugahyde office chairs that were used in the early days of Staples, the office supply giant that Romney helped launch.

“Killed a lot of Naugas to get these babies!” Romney said, part of an unusually animated stump speech. He was drawing a comparison to the upscale offices of executives at Solyndra, a failed solar-energy company that the Obama administration lent money to.

That joke itself was old enough to vote — in fact, since it originated in the 1960s, it’s old enough to run for president. But still, people laughed.

And on Saturday morning, like high-school rivals looking for a rumble, Romney and Gingrich (Ga.) both promised to show up in the same diner’s parking lot. In a state with 4.6 million people and 30,600 square miles, the two campaigns scheduled appearances at Tommy’s Country Ham House in Greenville, S.C., at 10:45 a.m.

In the end, Romney showed up 45 minutes early and was gone before Gingrich arrived. The former speaker couldn’t resist a little trash-talking: Gingrich emphasized his own Southern roots (and Romney’s Northern ones) by saying the diner offered some “good eatin’ ” and that it didn’t serve New England clam chowder.

“When we win tonight, we will launch the Florida campaign,” Gingrich said. “You start it here today. .?.?. I am the only conservative who has the opportunity to stop a Massachusetts moderate.”

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