Newt Gingrich surged to victory in the South Carolina presidential primary, batting back questions about his personal life and riding a pair of strong debate performances to overtake Mitt Romney and slow his seeming march to the GOP nomination.
Romney finished more than 10 percentage points behind the former House speaker Saturday, with Rick Santorum and Ron Paul a distant third and fourth, respectively.
Gingrich, flashing just an occasional smile, marked his victory with a sober address to supporters in Columbia, praising each of his opponents and returning to a favorite tack ”” bashing the media and “the elites in Washington and New York [who] have no understanding, no care, no connection, no reliability” and fail to represent the American people.
As I wonder about how Romeny’s religion affected the election, I am not sure the evangelicals could support an Episcopalian. Is one heresy better than another? Just thinking.