“Three states, three winners, what a great country.” When Rick Santorum said this during his speech he summed up the South Carolina primary beautifully. This campaign that seemed only a few days ago to be completely Romney has now morphed into anyone’s game.
Newt Gingrich has seen untold amounts of success in South Carolina, after defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire he stole the show in South Carolina. Gingrich had huge showings in both debates and this pulled him ahead of Romney but no one was ready for the landslide that was South Carolina.
Gingrich took forty percent of the vote in South Carolina capturing a little over 243,000 votes. In his speech, he referenced all of his opponents and seemed to be very humbled by his success in the state. Gingrich made a point to compliment all of the other candidates including Mitt Romney, which was a nice change from the war of words that has dominated the race in the past weeks.
Mitt Romney did quite well in South Carolina as well but anything less than a win had to be disappointing for him due to his 
standings in the polls just a few short days ago. Romney also had a very compelling message during his speech to South Carolina. Romney spoke of challenging the current administration and the fight ahead and it was nice to see that this is beginning to be addressed. In fact all the candidates touched on this in one way or another during their respective speeches.
Romney pulled in twenty-eight percent of the vote, which translated to just over 167,000 votes.
Rick Santorum greeted his faithful with words of patriotism and championing the working class of America. He talked about his working class roots and how every American should be afforded the chance to succeed as he and his family have. Santorum also touched on family values and the importance of family in the American culture. Santorum fought a good fight in South Carolina and although his numbers were far from what he would have liked, he did place respectably in third place. Santorum was able to take seventeen percent of the vote, which turned out to be about 102,000 votes.
It is important to note that although Santorum did place third he was not very far off of Romney, nine percentage points to be exact. The race in the aftermath of South Carolina is shaping up to be closer than anyone thought it would be just one week ago. Santorum continues to be the comeback kid of sorts but in order for him to continue and even increase his momentum and popularity he must win or at least place second in Florida. Without a win in one of the next few key states he may begin to lose the momentum he currently has.
Ron Paul took the last place spot. This isn’t a spot that Paul has seen yet but he seemed to handle the disappointing showing with a lot of grace and class. Ron Paul spoke heavily in his speech about fiscal responsibility and the ability to continue to prosper as a nation. With just shy of 78,000 votes Ron Paul commanded thirteen percent of South Carolina’s votes. Ron Paul will need to continue to hammer home his views on fiscal responsibility and the importance of cutting wasteful Washington spending. If he continues to do this he could very well garner some undecided support but he must avoid foreign policy wherever possible, as this is where he seems to alienate those on the fence.
The week between New Hampshire and South Carolina has been turbulent to say the least. In one week’s time, America saw two candidates drop from the race and the character of a candidate put in question. American’s also saw an undefeated Mitt Romney become a one out of three candidate. At the beginning of week Mitt Romney had won Iowa and New Hampshire, which was historic to say the least.
Now just seven short days later, the race has gone from six candidates down to four and in three primary election, three different candidates have emerged the victor. The next stop is Florida, which is sure to be a battleground for the four hopefuls, all of who have promised to see the primaries through to the end. With the race for delegates in a dead heat it truly is anyone’s game and in the words of Rick Santorum, “Game on!”
For more on the 2012 GOP race please visit Truth About Bills and The College Conservative. You can also follow me on Twitter and Facebook for debate and primary coverage.
[...] two major debates in the state of South Carolina this weeks debates figure to play majorly into the polls. Florida’s primary occurs on January [...]