After spending months far behind in 3rd or 4th place in South Carolina, Republican Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich has catapulted into first place in the latest Rasmussen Poll released today, just 2 days prior to the SC Primary.
Gingrich now garners 33% support among likely Republican primary voters in the Palmetto State. Former front runner Mitt Romney has dropped to 31%. Ron Paul comes in 3rd with 15%, and Rick Santorum is last with 11%.
Today Texas Governor Rick Perry dropped out of the race.
However, an in-state poll presents a conflicting picture. Dave Woodard, professor of political science at Clemson University in South Carolina runs a polling organization called 'the Palmetto Poll' in conjunction with the university. Woodard says that his group has been conducting a survey this week, the results of which will be released tomorrow, which shows that Mitt Romney is maintaining a comfortable lead and likely will be the winner Saturday.
Little is known of the track record of Woodard's Palmetto Poll. But Rasmussen has been recognized as one of the most accurate polls over the past decade due to its methodology of restricting its surveys to likely voters, and in this case, likely Republican primary voters.
Three major events have occurred today that could potentially impact Saturday's vote. First, upon dropping out of the race, Rick Perry endorsed Gingrich. Second, the state of Iowa announced that the real winner of last week's Iowa Republican Caucuses was Rick Santorum, not Mitt Romney as originally announced. A re-tabulation of the vote resulted in Santorum's defeat of Romney by 34 votes. And third, tonight's interview on ABC News with Gingrich's ex-wife could potentially impact some voters in the state.
On its face the interview appears to be purely politically motivated. The interview was conducted last week, yet ABC sat on it, deciding to air it just prior to a major primary vote. In addition, Newt has been a declared candidate for months, yet his ex-wife is just now coming out with her highly inflammatory negative attacks. Why?
The entire scheme could backfire if voters in South Carolina are aware enough to see through the obvious political dirty tricks on the part of a liberal mainstream news network and the sour grapes of an ex-spouse who has obviously carried a grudge for over 30 years.
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