Poor Romney

Two days ago, Mitt Romney was looking at a clean sweep of the first three contests of the 2012 primary. With polls opening at 7 a.m. EST tomorrow, he's now looking at going one-for-three. First, he lost his technical 8-vote victory in Iowa to Rick Santorum. Now, his once dominate odds of winning South Carolina have dwindled to 35 percent as of this writing, 30 points behind rival Newt Gingrich.


Gingrich is doing exactly what Romney hoped he wouldn't or couldn't: consolidate social conservative voters in South Carolina, previously split between Gingrich and Rick Santorum. Romney has never polled above 50 percent in the state and, even at his highest likelihood to win, was expected to win by a plurality, not a majority.