COLUMBIA, S.C. ? Newt Gingrich came here Friday to get an early Christmas present: a big crowd of supporters who haven?t been barraged by negative ads against him and ready to cheer his every word.
South Carolina has long been Gingrich?s stronghold. His poll numbers are high here, and he?s got the biggest local operation of any early state.
Continue ReadingIt?s also a state with a history of picking candidates who go on to the GOP nomination ? a point very much on Gingrich?s mind as he looked ahead to the Jan. 21 primary.
?We need to win the argument about the nature of America and the nature of solutions for the world,? Gingrich told the applauding crowd. ?If I win South Carolina, I will be the nominee.?
But Gingrich wasn?t done whipping up the people who?d poured into a restaurant here for a lunch of Southern soul food staples to see the former speaker at his toe-touch campaign stop Friday.
In a departure, Gingrich made a few jabs of his own on Friday, calling Mitt Romney a ?Massachusetts moderate,? which he said afterward was not an attack, just a description.
He also tore into Ron Paul?s foreign policy position, calling him the only candidate with a weaker foreign policy than Barack Obama.
The South Carolina town hall delved more into the topic of race relations than campaign stops elsewhere.
When one woman asked if he thinks the state should be permitted to fly the Confederate flag on the state capitol building, she was booed by the crowd. When Gingrich responded that it was the state?s decision, he received some of the loudest cheers of the day. (He added, in response to the question, that he opposed slavery and segregation.)
Another woman asked him about a ?report? in an ?overseas newspaper? that Obama strategists have said that he is unconcerned with ?white working class? people.
Gingrich responded by saying that he plans to campaign to all ethnic groups. He then said that the ?class warfare? being waged by Obama is unacceptable.
?Using racism as an excuse for thought is totally unacceptable for the American people,? Gingrich concluded. Asked after the event if he thinks Obama is being racist, Gingrich said that is often the ?excuse? of the left.
Gingrich was one of the few candidates working the trail the day before Christmas Eve, with just Michele Bachmann in Iowa and Mitt Romney in New Hampshire. Like the rest of his rivals, he?ll be taking the next few days off from campaigning, spending the time with him family in Virginia and Wisconsin.
He?ll take off to Iowa on Tuesday, where he will launch a 44-city bus tour in the run-up to the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses.
Jack and Sue McGlumphy of Gilbert, S.C., remain undecided about whom they?ll support in the GOP primary and attended the lunch to size up Gingrich in person. Thy have narrowed the choices to Gingrich or Mitt Romney.
For the couple, Gingrich?s authenticity is the last remaining issue.
The pair said they?ve heard about some of the attacks being leveled in Iowa, and they both think a person can change. But Sue McGlumphy acknowledged it?s hard to prove.
?That?s up for question for me, whether it?s deep down inside him,? she said. ?Is this just a sales pitch? Or is he really reformed??
Betty and Jim Miles, of Westminster, S.C., have already decided that they?ll back Gingrich when the primary hits their state. And they?re unconcerned about him slipping in Iowa or New Hampshire before South Carolina.
Jim Miles said he expects Ron Paul to win the Iowa caucus, but said he thinks Paul won?t cull much support in South Carolina. That?s good news for Gingirch, Miles said.
?I think he?ll win here,? Jim Miles said. ?No question about it.?
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article misstated the voting eligibility rules in South Carolina.
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