We need to get 1150 delegates, off to a good start. reporter: and, polls prior to the primary, newt gingrich rolled into time s and called out his rival. where is mitt? i thought he was going to stay and maybe we d have a debate here this morning. reporter: south carolina insiders, even romney officials say it feels like a gingrich win and will hinge on turnout in greenville and spartanburg the heart of the first southern primary s conservative up state. i m the only conservative who has the opportunity to stop a massachusetts moderate. reporter: and romney sent him an anniversary, marking the anniversary of the day, becoming the only speaker in u.s. history reprimanded for an ethics investigation and a gingrich win en south carolina guarantees a long battle. 47 states have yet to vote and no candidate can cinch the nomination until late april and, rick santorum promises, he s in another long haul.
Tally there. similar story in spartanburg county. the reason why this is important, we ll find out whether tonight, santorum and gingrich split the vote up in the northern part of the state or whether or not somebody like ron paul or even mitt romney can find success and what is considered the bible belt there, of south carolina. we ll get results in about 40 minutes as it trickles into the variety counties and see which trends are set up for this year in 2012. back to you guys. bret: let s bring in our all star panel, brit hume, senior political analyst, juan williams, columnist with the hill and stephen hayes, senior writer with the weekly standard. you saw bill talk about the different areas of the state, they all have a different personality, if you will, as we look at the early results. they do, and, i don t think we could say much about, you know, those areas still we have a little bit of actual raw vote coming in, we an can tize them but what strikes me tonight, two things,
She talked about what she would do if she was in south carolina, vote for newt gingrich, the reason was, vote to go on. and i think that was that message actually may have actually helped fuel some of the newt gingrich. they are having fun with this thing, we get to watch the debate and now see a bunch of primaries, 3 out of 51 voted and let the other 48 of em vote, the district of columbia. let s not denigrate them. electability has been a big issue and has helped, certainly in new hampshire, helped mitt romney big time. interestingly enough, the among those who said electability was a key issue, 45% in the exit poll, narrowly went for gingrich. is he beginning to make the i case, i m the man to stands up to barack obama. he says what matters is who can go toe-to-toe with obama and
Own on newt gingrich and the debate is important, ten polls this week, four of them early in the week had mitt romney leading and the last six in the week had the debate bake into them, gingrich won. joe i think it is fair to say mitt romney has been the front-runner in this case, felt like the front-runner at least, even when he has been trailing in the polls and one of his strengths has been to sort of project this aura of inevitability and you might as well support me, i ll be the nominee. if, again, if he loses tonight, how big a set back is all of that? it will hurt the argument. i think, going to what karl said it could be a vote to go on, one of the things that happens, once you win the way romney won in new hampshire, is you become the presumptive nominee and, there is a states start to realize who they vote for, it is over and they vote to go on and if they vote for the other guy, get to go on and sarah palin, when
Lot of people who have been responding and i think you have seen ron paul finish third in iowa, come in third in i think third in new hampshire and here has been i don t think has been campaigning as hard, he s not going to do as well with the evangelicals but you get down into florida and i think he again may emerge as a key factor in the race. he hasn t really campaigned in florida. he has put his focus on these caucus states, like minnesota and wyoming and other places. nevada. coming up. we saw in fact he put more money into those states, that s right. but given mitt romney s strength and the amount of money and organization he has already made evident in florida, it will be interesting to see whether or not some of those floridians who are looking for someone other than mitt romney might graph vate towards ron paul and not gravitate towards ron paul and not the more conservative santorum. the problem is ron paul