the debate i think that south carolina, if you look at the exit polling, 80% of those voters in south carolina is watched the debates and the debate had a major factor in how they voted. and they like newt gingrich. they liked newt gingrich whose record, his past record does not speak to the evangelicals. the reverend dobson was harshly personally critical of newt gingrich and his wife, callista saying she was his mistress for six years, his comment not mine, and that had an influence on the other leaders there. i think that was a more passing comment. i don t recall it being discussed. what we did see in south carolina in those debates when the issue was brought up, i was actually there when the question was asked. i think it a legitimate issue that voters have a right to
light of what happened after that big upset in south carolina. scott rasmussen has the numbers a little later with the florida polls. i urge you to stick around you will find these quite interesting. bill: they re very interesting. the issue of the economy is so important, martha. it is more acute in the southeast. on our touch-screen billboard we show you why it is more important here in the southeast. specifically we ll focus on florida. on the map, the deeper red, more trouble you re in. the lighter red better off you are. if you re in green, you re okay. florida is deep in the red, unemployment going back over last few years, current statewide employment at 10%, well above the national average of 8.5%. jump around to the southeast. we drive that point home even more n georgia you re at 9.9. in south carolina we detailed this on saturday night. 9.9%. neighboring state of north carolina at 10%. north carolina, a state that barack obama barely won four years ago. we found in our exit
debate in tampa. early voting in the sunshine state is already underway with over 197,000 republican voters expected to vote before the state s january 31st primary. the romney campaign is hoping many of those ballots were cast when he was still soaring in the polls there. his lead is expected to close dramatically after what happened over the weekend iut speaker to gop contenders in the palmetto state on saturday with 40% support. mitt romney came in second with 28%, rick santorum and ron paul followed at 17% and 13% respectively. exit polling is poking some big holes in romney s electability argument. nearly half of the voters said winning the general election was the main factor in their choice. and among those voters, 51% said that newt gingrich was the most electable with 37% choosing romney. the conservative vote was critical to gingrich s win. 48% of those who called themselves very conservative put their support behind newt
the one he talks about in speeches. he went after newt without naming newt. take a listen. those who pick up the weapons of the left today, will find them turned against us tomorrow. and that s the choice our party gives america. or else we don t offer them any choice at all and americans in my view, will demand a real choice in this campaign between those people who believe in prosperity and success and opportunity and those who believe in government and i think they ll choose us. talking about the bain capital issue and the questions whether the attacks on bain capital and venture capital. it wasn t an attack on venture capital it was attack on the the practice of it and jobs related to it. did it work? turns out it did. if you look at the exit polling and looks like the bain capital issue for mitt romney hurt him.
keystone pipeline, talked about that earlier, he couldn t believe that he thought the president fumbled the pipeline and he related that to tic-tac-toe. and remarkable, one was how fast fox was able to call this place. sure. alisyn: because of the exit polling. the exit polling was so resounding by 7 p.m., virtually, fox said gingrich is going to be the winner and winner big. by 7:24, newt gingrich himself sent out this tweet. thank you, south carolina, help me deliver the knockout punch in florida and join oust money bomb and donate now. clayton: mitt romney has spent 7 million in florida on ads. blanketing loose miami, orlando, tallahassee and a lot of catching up to do and one analogy had mitt romney s camp out with supporters trying to get the early votes in florid florida, but a rival campaign headquarters newt gingrich,