Hand in Mitt (the sun shines out of our behinds)

Yesterday, Republicans in South Carolina handed Mitt Romney his arse (or should that be ass).  He had a sizeable lead in the polls and blew it.  Republicans forgive those who apologise but when the candidate in the spotlight squirms and tries to wriggle out of controversy, they hammer the tricky dicky – as Herman Cain found out, losing their trust.  Romney’s evasion over his tax receipts, refusing to confirm whether he would follow his own father’s example (a previous presidential candidate), was the keynote issue of this particular state primary.  All the attacks on Newt Gingrich washed off him as he either confidently answered them or confidently stared them down.

It’s amazing that Gingrich has seemed buried, not once, but twice.  In the summer of 2011, his entire campaign management deserted him, citing his unreliability with a cruise holiday taking precedence over electioneering.  They vacated the premises while he was on vacation.  But he bounced back and seemed certain to take Iowa.  Then the SuperPac with no official links to Romney absolutely savaged his record and character and he struggled in fourth (enough to take some delegates with him though).  Then, after a lull in New Hampshire, he’s come from under the radar again to upset the ‘moderate’ bandwagon.  Romney still is riding high in Florida, but if Gingrich bucks trends there as well, who knows how far he could go (he needs to register on the ballot in places like Missouri though).  And Barack Obama rubs his hands, rather than wringing them.