Conservatives may hold key for Romney's success in S.C.
As the Republican presidential race moves to South Carolina, Mitt Romney's new best friends just might be Christian conservatives and tea party activists.They haven't necessarily swallowed their suspicions of the Mormon former governor of Massachusetts, who says he has changed his once-moderate stripes. It's just that, so far, the right remains divided among several alternatives - meaning Romney has a chance to glide to victory in next Saturday's primary.
Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry are competing hard for support from conservatives in the state, where evangelical voters are projected to be at least half the electorate.
On Saturday, Santorum won support from a group of national leaders of the religious right who had been meeting at a ranch in Texas to see whether they could unite around a consensus champion to stop Romney.
The vote is a strong symbolic boost for Santorum at a time when several polls show him slipping behind Gingrich in South Carolina. It remained unclear, however, whether some of the groups represented there, such as James Dobson's Focus on the Family, would invest much on TV and, radio, and in direct mail touting the former Pennsylvania senator - or whether such a blitz could break through the heavy volume of ads already flying here.
Evangelicals in South Carolina are divided as they are elsewhere; Gingrich and Santorum lead among those voters, but Romney also is getting his share, recent polls show.
The Rev. Robert Jeffress, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dallas, did not attend what he called the "waste of time" summit. He was not convinced that pastors' endorsements make much difference to the people in the pews, and he said stopping Romney would be difficult in any case.
"The real division is between the idealists who are looking for the right president, anybody but Romney, and the pragmatists who don't want to cut off their access to the next president, who they think will be Romney," Jeffress said Friday in an interview. "The fat lady is not singing, but she's in the green room, warming up.
Mccain North Carolina Car Insurance - News
And in 2000, after McCain had upended front-runner George W. Bush in New Hampshire, leaflets turned up on car windshields at campaign events in South Carolina stating that McCain had an illegitimate black daughter. They featured pictures of Bridget
The Republicans have nominated five presidential candidates — Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain. During the same time, the Democrats have nominated seven presidential candidates — Jimmy Carter,
Additionally, in a measure of his establishment support, the former governor announced he would campaign with South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on Thursday, as he was joined by McCain in New Hampshire. “The time has arrived for Republicans to choose a
John McCain. There was the innuendo in 2008 about various adulteries allegedly carried on by current Gov. Nikki Haley. And then there is the current spate of slasher political ads being broadcast by the Gingrich, Perry and Romney campaigns in South
The Republicans have nominated five presidential candidates — Ronald Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, Bob Dole, George W. Bush and John McCain. During the same time, the Democrats have nominated seven presidential candidates — Jimmy Carter,
Greetings From Myrtle Beach : The Other McCain
We were somewhere between Nakina, N.C., and the South Carolina border, cruising south on Highway 905 at 70 mph when I hit the brakes. My 13-year-old son Jefferson, who had been trying to sleep in the passenger seat of the rented Toyota Corolla, sat up suddenly. “What? What is it?”
“Deer,” I said, pointing to the field on the right side of the road. “A whole freaking herd of ‘em.”
One of them had crossed the road ahead of me, stirring memories of that terrifying night in September 2010 when a deer totalled my KIA Optima. That’s why I’d hit the brakes, slowing suddenly from 70 to 40 mph, and startling my son awake.
Sure, I had gotten the full insurance at the rental agency, but the deductible was $500 and if one of those vicious antlered bastards attacked the Toyota, I’d be out five hundred bucks. So we crept along until we were safely past the herd and after that, I kept it under 60 mph, just in case there were more of them lurking somewhere down the road, waiting to ambush me.
It was about 3:30 a.m. and I’d been on the road since 8 o’clock Saturday night. We’d made good time, especially once we got off Interstate 95 and onto the two-lane highways, from Lumberton through Bladenboro and Whitesville down through Nakina. And then, with my nerves already worn down from sleep deprivation and too much coffee, I saw the deer Off season is the way to do Myrtle Beach if you don’t intend on getting in the water anyway. Temps are reasonably mild year-round – you could have done some laying in the sun last week – and prices are a fraction of tourist season. Looking at the recent ARG poll, it is saying evangelicals in SC break down 40% Gingrich – 15% Perry – 13% Romney – 12% Santorum, and that is just bull manure from what I’m seeing and hearing in the Lowcountry (the Upstate is the stronghold of the evangelical movement). Both Gingrich and Perry have tanked in the last week or two – their anti-capitalist assaults on Romney’s Bain years encountered a stern backlash. The evangelicals are definitely moving toward Santorum.