This video clip from the opening of the debate is 3 minutes, and Newt got a standing ovation.
Newt’s daughters seem to like him.
More Newt from the debate:
More Newt:
Newt’s conclusion:
Newt is mainting his 6 point lead over Romney in the latest South Carolina Republican primary poll. (Released Thursday night)
Excerpt:
Thursday may have been one of the most eventful days of the Republican campaign so far, but the state of the race in South Carolina didn’t change much. Newt Gingrich continues to lead Mitt Romney by 6 points, 35-29, with Ron Paul and Rick Santorum each tied for third at 15%.
Revelations from the Marianne Gingrich interview haven’t taken a toll on Newt’s image yet. For the first time in our South Carolina tracking this month his favorability is better than Romney’s, with 53% of voters holding a positive opinion of him compared to 51% for his chief competitor.
Gingrich’s lead with evangelicals held steady today at 40-22 over Romney. He’s also doing well with Tea Party voters (46-21), registered Republicans (38-30), voters describing themselves as very conservative (41-21), men (39-27), and voters in the Upstate (36-25).
Romney is leading with non-evangelicals (39-30), independents (30-26), moderates (44-23), and women (32-31). The problem for him is that all of those groups are a minority within the South Carolina Republican electorate.
Both Gingrich (81%) and Romney (79%) have supporters who are pretty firmly committed to them. 81% of Paul’s supporters say they’ll definitely vote for him as well. Santorum has the voters most likely to abandon him for one of the more viable contenders in the final 36 hours, with 32% of them saying they could end up voting for someone else. Gingrich is the second choice of 45% of Santorum voters open to changing their minds, compared to 22% for Romney.
Things look good for Newt. He has the lead, his support seems to have more room to grow than Romney’s, and so far he’s not seeing any ill effects from his ex-wife going to the media. It’s important to note though that many average South Carolina voters- the non-political junkies- will get their first exposure to the Marianne Gingrich story in the morning paper or on the news sometime tomorrow. That may or may not end up having a big impact on his numbers. But it’s important to keep in mind.
PPP surveyed 836 likely Republican primary voters on January 18th and 19th. The margin of error for the survey is +/-3.4%.
Here are the last few polls:
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I think at this point, it may be an all hands on deck situation to keep Romney out of the nomination.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
I respectfully disagree that Newt “won” tonight’s debate. Of course, it all depends on what you mean by “won.” When it comes to clever quips and entertaining rhetoric, Newt always “steals the show,” as it were. In that regard, I will grant that he came out on top during Monday’s Fox News debate; but not tonight. To me, Santorum outshined him, on both substance and style. He came across as tougher, clearer, more thoughtful (one of his strengths is his ability to walk people through his thought process) and more confident than the other debaters this evening.
That being said, as I’m sure you know, good debate skills and smooth speech do not make a person correct on his/her positions (e.g., Christopher Hitches was a proficient debater who was often considered the “winner” of debates against Christians, even though his positions were false), and they surely don’t mean the person would make a good president. Voting for style over substance gave us our present situation–that is, an oval office occupied by a windbag who has been “all talk and no walk.”
During tonight’s debate, there was an exchange between Santorum and Gingrich in which Newt essentially said he could rely on his debate skills alone to defeat Obama, as if nothing else matters. Now, of course, Newt could eat Obama for breakfast in a debate. That’s a no-brainer. However, I would like to remind Newt that the end/purpose of a presidential race is not to determine the best orator, but rather, the next leader of the free world. In other words, we know Newt can talk–no question. But does he have the credentials/track record to lead this country? I am skeptical, particularly in light of Santorum’s exposing Newt’s political inconsistency and erratic behavior as a Congressman and Speaker of the House.
The bottom line that I keep repeating is this: America needs the *antithesis* of the far-Left socialist Barack Obama, and that man is Rick Santorum. In his own words, America needs “a conviction conservative who has a clear contrast with Barack Obama on the most important issues of the day.” Only one candidate has such a record.
By the way, as he pointed out tonight, considering that he indisputably defeated Gingrich in the first two caucuses, why should Rick be the one to drop out of the race? Newt should swallow his pride, bow out gracefully, and endorse Santorum against Romney. He is highly unlikely to do so, but he *should.*
Having said that, if the poll standings you posted hold steady through Saturday, then Santorum will experience immense pressure to get out of the race. Maybe he will; maybe he won’t. But I’m trying to resist the media’s annoying insistence that South Carolina will be the end of the line for the non-Romneys. This campaign is far from over, and I am hopeful that this week’s revised Iowa results, key endorsements from James Dobson and Randy Page, and his excellent performance in tonight’s debate will give Santorum the boost he needs to win the SC caucus Saturday.
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I think you’re right, let me fix my post. Santorum did come across as the candidate with more integrity.
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Jeremy, everyone agrees with you:
http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/20/opinion/graham-santorum-debate/index.html
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/01/19/santorum-one-solidly
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