>> newt gingrich is south carolina's choice. it's a major blow to mitt romney's campaign. >> this is a hard fight because there's so much worth fighting for. >> four republicans went into this southern brawl. who will be left standing as the contest moves to florida? the votes are in. south carolina has spoken. and the biggest battleground yet is still ahead. rick santorum at 17%. ron paul at 13%. all the candidates say they are moving forward to florida. we have reporters stationed throughout south carolina as we have for the last several weeks. let's start off with gingrich headquarters. there are still a lot of folks there, romney headquarters looks like a ghostown. does the candidate move to florida tomorrow? >> reporter: you know, we're still waiting to hear about his travel plans. it's been on interesting day watching the gingrich campaign. this is a candidate who tends to shoot from the hip. i did catch up with somebody a few moments ago and they were watching the returns come in on the gingrich bus. i asked were they elated, were they exciting, doing touchdown dances? the answer is no, they were very humbled by the results down here in south carolina. and anderson, i think what happened here is that conservatives in this state, republicans in the state said they couldn't care less about newt gingrich's personal life. what they did care about was a candidate taking it to the establishment, taking it to the republican establishment, not only around the country but here in south carolina. it was the governor of this state who was on the mitt romney team, not on the newt gingrich team. he was going after the media, which we talked about again and again, and conservatives like that, as well. but it was interesting to listen to newt gingrich's victory speech here tonight, because it wasn't so much about his rival. we heard him go on and on about mitt romney on the campaign trail. this one was about president obama and what he considers to be a food stamp president, something that he's said time and again. here's just a little bit of what he had to say with respect to that line of attack. >> president obama has been historically the most effective food stamp president in american history. [ applause ] i worked with ronald reagan to create jobs and 16 million jobs were created. by the american people in the '80s. i worked with bill clinton and 11 million jobs were created by the american people during the four years that i was speaker. i would like to be the best paycheck president in american history. and i want to go into every neighborhood of every ethnic background in every part of the country and say to people simply, if you want your children to have a life of dependency and food stamps, you have a candidate that's barack obama. if you want your children to have a life of paychecks, you have a candidate that's newt gingrich. and i bet you that we have votes everywhere. [ applause ] >> there you have it, newt gingrich focusing in on the president, something that his rival mitt romney likes to do out on the stump. so we heard some of that from newt gingrich. you asked about what he's doing tomorrow. he's going to be on three morning talk shows, including "state of the union" with candy crowley. a lot of people are talking about mitt romney -- florida being mitt romney country. newt gingrich could do very well down in florida. he's already cultivating ties with the cuban-american community and mitt romney will have a tough time explaining his opposition to the dream act, which is a bill that would lead to a path to citizenship for young latinos in this country. newt gingrich said he's in favor of portions of that bill. mitt romney said he would veto that act and newt gingrich would be very popular in the central part of the state. that's sarah palin country and sarah palin, she sort of endorsed newt gingrich here in south carolina. so buckle your seat belts. >> candy crowley is at romney headquarters. it was interesting to hear governor romney's speech tonight, talking a lot about obama, but he did throw a few references towards newt gingrich, though not using the candidate by name. we anticipate that is going to change in the next couple of days. he's squarely got to go after newt gingrich, right? >> reporter: and it's clearly one thing he told me and talking to some strategists tonight. they said listen, he's still going to go after president obama, but newt gingrich is now also a target. so they have sort of a two-pronged approach here, as they move into florida and that was pretty evident when mitt romney came out here to thank the people of south carolina. take a listen. >> in recent weeks, the choice within our party has also come into stark focus. president obama has no experience running a business and no experience running a state. our party can't be led to victory by someone who also has never run a business or never run a state. [ applause ] >> reporter: so obviously probably with a name attached, you're going to see mitt romney going after newt gingrich. it's what you do to try to slow that momentum. they went for a quick change of scenery, even before mitt romney came out here tonight to say thank you. his supporters here were shouting "florida, florida," and they do have high hopes and florida, they keep talking about this is going to be a big week. mitt romney will come out in advance of the president's state of the union speech tuesday night. tuesday morning, mitt romney will give a major speech on the economy and differentiating himself not just from the president but newt gingrich, as well. he will give a similar speech the next day after the president's state of the union address. they point out that mitt romney has lots of resources. that means money. that he has a lot of staff on the ground, and he has the wherewithal to go the long haul. you will see him playing the hardball that he started to play here tonight. you will hear them talk a lot about how they're going to be in state after state after state collecting delegates, because after all, we tend to forget as we think maybe it's going to be wrapped up in south carolina or wrapped up in florida. this is, after all, a state by state battle for delegates. >> and it seems tonight that it is going to be a very, very long haul indeed. candy crowley, appreciate it. wolf and john king, looking at exit polling numbers as you have been all night long. >> the numbers are fascinating. we get a real picture of what was going on in south carolina, but that doesn't mean the same thing is going to happen in florida. >> doesn't necessarily, though we've seen the impacted momentum. south carolina is a more conservative state than florida, but when kru lock at the scope of the gingrich victory, let's think about some lessons going forward. among those born again or evangelical christians, this is 2/3 of the vote, evangelical voters, gingrich easily thumping romney here. it's a big piece of the electorate. a smaller slice in florida. look at this in idealology. gingrich carries very conservative voters. some with liberal voters. romney did carry the moderates. there are more moderates in florida than south carolina. somewhat conservative gingrich. this is an area where romney would have to improve. if you can win moderates and somewhat conservative voters in florida, you have a better chance given the demographics of that state. and over here, independents could vote in south carolina. gingrich carried them and carried self-identified republicans. in florida, it's only republicans. so governor romney is going to have to do better to rebound here. this is fascinating. by income, voters under $30,000, gingrich. $30,000 to $50,000, gingrich, $50,000 to 100,000, gingrich. 100,000 to 200,000, gingrich. only $200,000 or more voted for romney. some evidence here, number one, they did not buy his pitch that he's the best candidate on the economy. number two, the bane capital attacks and the taxes on governor romney. he was uncomfortable in the debates about releasing taxes. by education, never attended college, gingrich, some college, gingrich, only among post graduate studies went for romney. the upper slice, if you will, in the education. across the age demographics, ron paul, his supporters are young. he won the 18-29 group with 31%. gingrich, 28%. romney way down there after rick santorum. but among the larger groups, gingrich, gingrich and gingrich. you just go across, he keeps winning. here's one more. men and woman, it was evenly split. some thought there would be a gender gap. there was no gender gap. gingrich 38%, romney, 29%. he won among women. he won even more convincingly among men. and the question, you can see here this is newt gingrich. that is a picture of a thumping. look at 2008 when john mccain barley carried the state. he won 33% to 30% over mike huckabee. you see a split, the conservatives up here, the more moderate to conservative voters in this part of the state. tonight, newt gingrich winning convincingly. the question is, can he take the demographic support among tea party voters, and evangelicals and bring it into a much more different state here. this is mccain the lighter red, romney is the darker red. mike huckabee the yellow. that's four years ago. romney got 31% last time but mccain won the state. that was it. much more diverse place. again, a lot of lessons. you can discount because of the size of the gingrich victory or say governor romney has a problem as he moves on. >> we have ten days between now and january 31 when the florida primary takes place. you think how quickly things can change, only a week or so, not even a week or so ago, that cnn "time" magazine poll we did in florida showed mitt romney crushing newt gingrich in florida. but i don't know if that's accurate now. >> at the moment, we have a momentum race and it's a gingrich momentum. in the tom foreman interview with the undecided voters was quite telling. again, in the national polls for months, who is the strongest candidate against president obama? mitt romney. south carolina republicans tonight said it was newt gingrich. winning helps you in politics. the question is, ten days is important. not three days, seven days, ten days gives mitt romney a chance with the advertising. we can show you this real quick. let me come forward to 2012. tv ads up in the states right now, if you add in the superpacs that are spending, all the spending in florida as of today was pro romney. count a few hours. >> newt gingrich is going to get his superpac. they're going to be all over the place. there are some rich people who support newt gingrich out there and can give unlimited amounts of money to the newt gingrich superpacs or to the mitt romney superpacs, the rick santorum superpacs. they've all got their superpacs. let's go over to erin burnett. because sh's taking a look at this ad spending, as well. south carolina is in the millions, no doubt about that, but it's going to be a lot more over the next ten days in florida. tell us about south carolina first. >> south carolina, all in. you saw the numbers. mitt romney by far spending the most. this is mitt romney on television ads. $2.7 million. to buy 30 seconds of advertising in south carolina is $300. it's a very different story when you look at the state of florida. now, here are our four candidates, going on to florida. mitt romney's campaign has already spent $2.4 million on television ads in florida. when you d in the superpac, $4.9. that is more than he spent in the entire state in south carolina that he spenl in florida. that's going to buy him a lot of ads. some of his ads are already playing in florida. he's got an ad airing in spanish to win over some hispanic voters. the real question is, you go to newt.org tonight, what does it say? we want a million dollar money bomb, trying to get more money to buy advertising in florida. but right now, mitt romney is the only one with the television presence in that state and it's an expensive state. >> a lot of major media markets in florida. it's not cheap to buy those 30-second commercials. i want to go over to peter right now, one of our political reporters, doing an outstanding job for us. take us inside, peter, the romney camp right now. they must be so upset, so frustrated. a few days ago they were poised to win in south carolina and didn't happen. >> reporter: that's right. i can tell you romney supporters here, his financial supporters, campaign surrogates, they were winning a week ago and they lost it. there's a sense of yes, newt gingrich won south carolina, but also that mitt romney fumbled the ball. there's some griping behind the scenes, that the romney campaign did not handle the tax question well. while newt gingrich was soaring in the polls, the romney campaign cannot punch through that coverage with an aggressive message against speaker gingrich, because they were spending five straight days giving a different answer about mitt romney's tax returns. while they realized the gingrich surge, they thought they might have had a fighting chance. i talked to one donor who said it's time to take the training wheels off the candidate. let him be himself. there were questions about mitt romney's charisma and his ability to connect with voters. but he's showed better political instincts than he did in 2008. so you're hearing again from south carolina some of the folks who went out on a limb for him in a state that was a risk yil bet, sort of come paining that they didn't serve the -- the campaign staff did not serve the candidate as well as they could have. >> peter doing some good reporting for us. anderson, let's go back to you. ten days, a lifetime between now and january 31, the florida primary. >> a lifetime, especially in this election as we've seen it over the last couple of weeks. rick santorum praising newt gingrich on his victory tonight in south carolina. but ron paul a little more hesitant. we'll check in with both candidates after a break. 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( bike bell) unbelievable. welcome back. here you have it. something we have not seen in the gop field before. three different winners for three different -- for the caucuses and two different primaries in new hampshire and south carolina. newt gingrich winning tonight. by a commanding lead. we heard from rick santorum a short time ago. dana bash spoke to the candidate earlier before. dana, what is rick santorum's strategy at this point? is he hoping that newt gingrich does fatal damage to mitt romney and then newt gingrich does fatal damage to himself? >> reporter: i think maybe the last thing you said first. he's expecting newt gingrich to do potentially fatal damage to himself. look, they are disappointed inside the rick santorum campaign that he didn't do better here. but they're effectively saying this could have been worse, because mitt romney could have won. they understand that rick santorum is seen as the buffer between newt gingrich and mitt romney and specifically newt gingrich getting the nomination. i did have a chance to go into rick santorum's war room exclusively earlier tonight and asked him about the results tonight. >> he kicked butt and i give him a lot of credit. i'm proud of him for what he accomplished. the great narrative is three days ago, there was an inevitability in this race. mitt romney was 2-0, soon to be 3-0. and i took iowa, newt took south carolina, and it's game on again. i can't be more excited for the opportunity now to see this campaign go on. we're going to have it go on for a long time. >> you said newt gingrich kicked butt. why didn't you kick butt? >> we didn't get the bump we hoped for out of iowa. we did well, but we didn't win. yesterday they determined we won, not quite in time for us to get the bounce we wanted. >> now, santorum aides say he's going to make his attacks on newt gingrich even sharper. they were pretty sharp in cnn's debate a couple of nights ago. they will be sharper in the coming days. he is going on to florida. he's already got a couple of events scheduled tomorrow, including at a church with about 3,000 people. that is certainly an indication he's going to continue to try to appeal to the christian conservative, social conservative base. even though that was really the hope that he was going to do well in this state, because such a big part of the electorate and he didn't do very well with those voters here, but he insists he's going to go to florida and then colorado, nevada, minnesota. we'll see if he can keep the money flowing in to stay in the race. >> dana, thank you very much. joe johns is standing by at congressman ron paul headquarters. they just keep chugging right along. >> reporter: yeah, anderson. the band played on, very loud band right here. ron paul is long gone. fourth in a four-person race is not good by election standards. but by ron paul standards, he says he finished with more votes than he did four years ago when he ran for president. so in his view, that's pretty good. how can he say that? he views this as much as a movement, not just an election, if you will. ron paul, i talked to him earlier, just before cnn went on tv with the projection saying newt gingrich had won. i wanted to gauge, if you will, his opinion of newt gingrich. so let's listen to this sound bite and i'll talk to you on the other side. some people are saying if newt gingrich wins tonight, the people at the white house would be very happy and satisfied. what is your view on that, do you think a win for newt gingrich is bad for the republican party? >> i don't know whether i'm going to let you put those words into my mouth. i think he's going to have a difficult time, but i think any republican time would have a difficult time. that's why i was offering my services. there was a poll out that said that paul against obama does pretty darn well, essentially in a tie. did as well as romney has done. so i would say that the other republicans cannot appeal to civil libertarians and to those democratic base who are sick and tired of obama with his foreign policy. of course, the republicans ought to have a strong appeal to me, because i'm a fiscal conservative offering to cut the budget by a trillion dollars. [ applause ] >> reporter