It may have come too late.
“It’s kind of difficult this year. Everybody I talk to, they want to ... they want a change from the president we got. They just don’t know which way to go,” said Danny Causey, who runs a neighborhood barbershop in Mount Pleasant, S.C. “Some of the ones they like the best, they think they don’t have a chance.” So Causey sensed a small shift toward Romney, despite all the hoopla for Gingrich.
A handshake. Hearing their voice. Just seeing them. Voters brave cold weather and large crowds to catch a glimpse of the candidate they hope to vote for in the South Carolina Republican primary. (Jan. 21)
South Carolina primary exit polls
Even before primary day began, strange things were happening in South Carolina. Just as light becomes distorted the closer it gets to a black hole, so does politics turn odd at the chaotic edge of an important primary.
On Friday night, for example, Romney — either as a sign of personal growth, or of exhaustion — finally located his zany inner comedian. He made a joke about the cheap Naugahyde office chairs that were used in the early days of Staples, the office supply giant that Romney helped launch.
“Killed a lot of Naugas to get these babies!” Romney said, part of an unusually animated stump speech. He was drawing a comparison to the upscale offices of executives at Solyndra, a failed solar-energy company that the Obama administration lent money to.
That joke itself was old enough to vote — in fact, since it originated in the 1960s, it’s old enough to run for president. But still, people laughed.
And on Saturday morning, like high-school rivals looking for a rumble, Romney and Gingrich both promised to show up in the same diner’s parking lot. In a state with 4.6 million people and 30,600 square miles, the two campaigns scheduled appearances at Tommy’s Country Ham House in Greenville, S.C., at 10:45 a.m.
In the end, Romney showed up 45 minutes early and was gone before Gingrich arrived. The former speaker couldn’t resist a little trash-talking: Gingrich emphasized his own Southern roots (and Romney’s Northern ones) by saying the diner offered some “good eatin’ ” and that it didn’t serve New England clam chowder.
“When we win tonight, we will launch the Florida campaign,” Gingrich said. “You start it here today. ... I am the only conservative who has the opportunity to stop a Massachusetts moderate.”
A Gingrich win in South Carolina means that, after three caucuses, there are three winners.
But, in the bigger sense, no winner. Instead of crowning Romney as the inevitable favorite, the South Carolina contest sets up the next primary, in Florida on Jan. 31.
Fahrenthold reported from Washington. Staff reporters Nia-Malika Henderson in Greenville, S.C., and Rosalind S. Helderman in Sullivan’s Island, S.C., contributed to this report.
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