Rick Perry with wife Anita and his son Griffin after announcing that he is pulling out of the Republican presidential race. Photograph: ERIK S. LESSER/EPA
3.22pm: There's an important update on the quotes critical of Newt Gingrich attributed to Michele Bachmann by a newspaper in Greenville, which I reported earlier today. The Bachmann campaign, according to Politico, says they are "fake".
What a curious business.
3.03pm: Mitt Romney has changed his plans to spend the last two days of the primary campaign in Greenville, the staunchly conservative city in north west of the state. It's a sign that Romney is taking the threat of Gingrich deeply seriously – the former House speaker is clearly the frontrunner for the conservative vote here.
2.52pm: What does Rick Santorum make of Rick Perry's endorsement of his conservative rival, Newt Gingrich? Our reporter Adam Gabbatt has been travelling around with the Santorum campaign.
Santorum said he "respects" Rick Perry's decision to endorse Newt Gingrich this afternoon, saying it was "his decision to make", after the Texas governor dropped out of the race.
At a Values Bus tour event in Mount Pleasant – the values bus is basically a conservative lobbying group which travels around the country but does not endorse specific candidates – Santorum said his "heart and prayers" were with Perry and family.
Santorum used the platform here, under the Arthur J Ravenel Jr suspension bridge, to criticise Gingrich, drawing a contrast between his morals and those of the former speaker, in an apparent bid to shore up the Christian, social conservative vote.
Santorum said no one else in the race "walks the walk and talks the talk" on "core convictions" – on the day when Gingrich's ex-wife said he sought an open marriage.
"They've never gone out and fought and been able to be successful in striking a blow for the family, and for faith and for freedom," Santorum said.
"In fact Congressmen Gingrich routinely puts these issues to the back of the bus sees them as controversial issues that need to be avoided."
The event was briefly jnterrupted by Occupy Charleston protesters, critical of Santorum's stance on gay marriage.
2.38pm: On the stump in South Carolina today, Newt Gingrich has been asked about his past adultery – not by journalists, but by a voter who said he otherwise supports him (the guy described him as Churchillian). It's a well-rehearsed response. (Well, it's not as if he hasn't had enough ttime to come up with it.)
I've been very open about my wife and the mistakes I have made, and asking for for forgivenes and to seek reconcilliation.
2.31pm: The Guardian's Ana Marie Cox has a fiery analysis of the position Gingrich finds himself in today – endorsed by Rick Perry but under fire from his ex wife.
Politicians' – especially conservative politicians' – hypocrisy about marriage is a comedic staple, but that doesn't mean Americans are inured to the kind of grand arrogance exhibited by Gingrich. Asking your wife for an "open marriage" after you've already been having an affair for six years? There's an American idiom about the uselessness of shutting the barn door after the horses have already gotten out; Newt was informing Marianne that the barn door was open, the horses were out, and if she would just clean up the stable, he would be back after he was done screwing.
2.16pm: Back to Iowa for a moment and there's a good analysis from commenter dnjake on what the announcement of the vote flip there.
Who actually won Iowa by a few votes has zero consequence. There is no direct connection between the Iowa votes for candidates and the selection of delegates. In order to win the nomination, Romney has to have the votes of the majority of delegates at the national convention.
The only question is whether he or not he is on a track to win those delegates. Trying to evaluate his current status is complicated by the large variation in the processes different states use to actually choose delegates. But, if Romney is generally winning a pluarlity with 40% of the vote, it is hard to see how he would fail to gain the delegates he needs.
Given Paul's role in the race, it is hard to see an alternative emerging who has much prospect of actually challenging Romney to win pluaralities in most states. On the other hand, if Romney can only win a third of the vote, the outcome remains in more doubt. South Carolina and Florida will provide new data points.
1.46pm: Another poll puts Newt Gingrich ahead, by a small margin, in South Carolina. The American Research Group survey puts Gingrich on 33% and Romney on 32%. Ron Paul is in third place with 19% and Rick Santorum is in fourth place with 9%.
Newt Gingrich, pinches the nose of Bonnie Ellison, 78, of Easley, South Carolina while shaking hands with supporters at Mutt's Barbeque Photograph: Nathan Gray/AP
1.30pm: Here's a summary of events on what has been a busy day so far.
Texas congressman Rick Perry has announced that he is pulling out of the Republican race, after a faltering campaign. Perry said there was "no viable path forward for me" and endorsed the former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Perry said Gingrich was "not perfect" but a "true conservative". He said he would return to Texas "with pride".
Newt Gingrich has enjoyed a poll boost today, with a Rasmussen survey putting him two points ahead of Mitt Romney as the remaining candidates prepared for a TV debate tonight. Gingrich said he was "privileged" to accept the endorsement of Perry and said the pair would work together.
But Gingrich was under pressure from an interview on ABC with his second wife, Marianne, who said he had asked her for an "open marriage". She said Gingrich wanted to remain married while having an affair with an aide, Callista Bisek, who went on to become his third wife. Former candidate Michele Bachmann said Gingrich "lacks the poise, experience and moral fiber to represent our principles and values".
Republican party officials announced that Mitt Romney's narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses will be rescinded, piling further pressure on the frontrunner. The state party chairman said the contest cannot be determined due to missing results from eight of the state's 1,774 precincts. Of the results that could be locate, officials say Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes ahead of Romney, but they would not declare an official winner.
1.09pm: Ewen MacAskill has been speaking to a Perry aide, who has some insight into why the campaign floundered.
Bob Haus, who was co-chair of the Perry campaign in Iowa, blamed Perry's failure on coming into the race too late, in August, well after the other candidates. "When you get into it late, you compress the window in which you can recover from any mistakes. All candidates make mistakes. Romney has made mistakes this week."
He also thought a major back operation in the spring did not help. "That really set him back. It was painful and he could not sleep. Once he felt better in September and October, you could see the difference."
He predicted the race would now be "a war of attrition from this point" between Romney and Gingrich, with Santorum, short of money, on the wane and Paul still in as "a wild card".
1.06pm: Poll news: A Rasmussun survey out today puts Gingrich ahead for the first time here in South Carolina. He's on 33%, two points ahead of Mitt Romney on 31%. Ron Paul trails on 15% and Rick Santorum on 11%.
12.14pm: Newt Gingrich isn't exactly fond of Europeans, but this open marriage business is all very 18th century France, isn't it?
12.01pm: At his campaign stop in Beaufort, Gingrich is pressed on the issue of his past adultery.
11.53am: Another one of our correspondents, Chris McGreal, is in Greenville, a stoutly conserative city in upstate South Carolina. He reports that Michele Bachmann, who quit the race last year, has given the local paper a withering assessment of Newt Gingrich.
While Gingrich was bolstered by Perry's endorsement he is also enduring some withering criticism from Michele Bachmann, the Tea Party loving member of Congress who dropped out of the Republican race. Bachmann told the Greenville News today that Gingrich is totally unfit to be the nominee.
She said: "Through this exhaustive process of consideration, it was strikingly obvious that one candidate could not be less acceptable to be our party's nominee. He lacks the poise, experience and moral fiber to represent our principles and values. That candidate is Newt Gingrich."
This April 1, 1997 file photo shows Newt Gingrich and his former wife Marianne. Photograph: Toru Yamanaka/AFP/Getty Images Meanwhile, this file photo shows Marianne and Newt Gingrich in what tabloids always say were "happier times".
11.46am: My colleague Matt Williams has fleshed out the Rick Perry quotes.
There is no viable path for me in the 2012 campaign. Therefore today I am suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich.
Newt is not perfect, but who amongst us is? But there is forgiveness for those who seek God, and I believe in the power of redemption.
He went on:
I know when it is time to make a strategic retreat. I will leave the trail, return to Texas and lie down my 2012 campaign and I will do so with pride.
I will continue to fight for these conservative reforms because the future of our country is at stake and the road we are travelling – President Obama's road – is a dangerous road.
This I know, I'm not done fighting for the cause of conservatism. As a matter of fact, I have just begun to fight.
11.34am: Newt Gingrich is speaking now in Beaufort, South Carolina, saying he was "honored and privileged" to have the endorsement of Rick Perry.
Gingrich says he and Perry spoke this morning – not yesterday as reported earlier – and says he has asked Perry to head up a "tenth amendment enforcement project".
The tenth amendment enshrines the notion that powers not granted to the federal government nor prohibited to the states by the constitution are reserved to states. So this appears to be an effort to bolster Gingrich's credentials on states' rights – an issue central to Ron Paul.
11.31am: Our Washington DC bureau chief, Ewen MacAskill who was at the Perry event, has this analysis of his decsion to quit, saying he ran a "terrible campaign".
When he joined the race in August, Perry had on paper all the credentials to jump to the top of the polls, which he subsequently did. He was photogenic, had experience of government as governor of Texas and could point to an albeit dubious record of job creation.
But a series of awful debate performances saw him plummet. He said that anyone who did not support a more tolerant approach to immigration had no hear: not what Repubublicans wanted to hear. Then there was his "oops" moment, from which he never recovered.
He got better on the campaign trail but it was too late. Republicans were scathing. One woman in South Carolina described him to me yesterday, on the basis of his debate performances, as "one chip short of a Happy Meal".
Perry did not help his cause by suggesting after Iowa he might quit, only to change his mind the next day. But he is out now, after only managing 4-5% in the polls in South Carolina.
His last service is to help Newt Gingrich. Most of his votes could go to Gingrich, with some to Rick Santorum. In a tight race, with Gingrich surging, that might make the difference to the former House speaker on Saturday in the South Carolina primary and ruin what Romney had hoped would be an easy glide to the Republican nomination.
Ewen also makes the point that Perry's withdrawal could help Gingrich in tonight's debate.
The smaller the number of people on the platform, the more chance of a real debate rather than soundbites. It also gives them more air time. Gingrich is a better debater than Romney.
Gingrich won Monday night's debate, partly explaining his surge in recent days. He needs to repeat that again tonight here in Charleston, in the debate organised by CNN and the Tea Party Patriots. Just as equally Romney needs to come back strong. The fate of the South Carolina primary and maybe even the Republican nomination could be decided tonight.
11.27am: So what to make of that? As Gingrich faces a tough day with the explosive allegations from his former wife, the most significant comment issued by Perry was that he believed in "redemption". It's a powerful image for social conservatives – and it's the only defence that can credibly be advanced in support of the adulterous formoer House speaker. The question is whether it's enough.
11.24am: Perry says he's heading back for Texas, and ends with what should be a rallying call, but sounds more like a death rattle.
I'm not done fighting for the cause of conservatism. As a matter of fact, I've just begun to fight.
11.21am: It's going to be hard to transcribe this. Perry's sentence construction is odd. He's rambling, it's peppered with religious references, he's squinting and stumbling. For such an important speech, it's astonishing that he's improvising.
11.17am: Perry looks exhausted. He says: "There is no viable path forward for me today. Therefore I'm suspending my campaign and endorsing Newt Gingrich."
He says of Gingrich that "we've had our differences", and adds: "Newt is not perfect, but who amongst us is?" Gingrich says there is "forgiveness for those who seek God", and that Perry believes in "the power of redemption". Gingrich is a "true conservative", he says.
11.14am: Rick Perry's press conference is starting now. Flanked by his wife, he begins by thanking his campaign team, and says what a "privilege it is to learn and grow under you".
I think the issue was that didn't learn and grow enough, wasn't it?
11:07am: I've just been speaking to our correspondent Ewen MacAskill who's at the other side of Charleston from me, waiting to get into the Rick Perry press conference. It sounds like something of a scrum.
Like his campaign, Perry's final press conference of the campaign was a shambles. He opted to hold it in a room too small for the press pack, with lots of journalists unable to get in. The short notice did not help either, with major networks unable to get to the hotel in north Charleston on time.
Meanwhile after the Iowa results fiasco, some are questioning why the state insists it has a near-divine right to be the first to vote in presidential nomination races.
10.40am: They said it would get dirty, and it has. ABC News has released a preview of tonight's Nightline interview with Marianne Gingrich, second wife of the former House speaker. The most damaging line: she alleges Newt wanted an "open marriage", so he could have both a mistress and a wife.
She said when Gingrich admitted to a six-year affair with a Congressional aide, he asked her if she would share him with the other woman, Callista, who is now married to Gingrich.
"And I just stared at him and he said, 'Callista doesn't care what I do,'" Marianne Gingrich told ABC News. "He wanted an open marriage and I refused."
Marianne described her "shock" at Gingrich's behavior, including how she says she learned he conducted his affair with Callista "in my bedroom in our apartment in Washington."
"He always called me at night," she recalled, "and always ended with 'I love you.' Well, she was listening."
Readers will no doubt remember that Gingrich was at the forefront of those who condemned President Bill Clinton for his lack of moral leadership – and is now leading the moral charge against gay marriage.
10.25am: Back to those Iowa results, and the state GOP has confirmed the Des Moines Register exclusive that, of the votes that could be counted, Rick Santorum had 34 more than Mitt Romney in the final tally.
At a news conference, Iowa Republican party chairman Matt Strawn said he could not name official winner because some votes can't be counted. Results from eight of the state's 1,774 precincts are missing.
Just as I did on the early morning hours on January 4, I congratulate senator Santorum and governor. Romney on a hard-fought effort during the closest contest in caucus history.
Mitt Romney has attempted to brush off the flip, saying it amounted to a "virtual tie".
Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts governor, hugs his wife, Ann, at his Iowa caucus rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Photograph: Rick Wilking/Reuters According to the certified results, Santorum got 29,839 votes with Romney at 29,805, a difference of 34. Ron Paul came in third with 26,036.
10.10am: Could this be a nightmare scenario for Mitt Romney? Today it was announced that he didn't win Iowa after all, and now it's clear that Newt Gingrich is catching up in South Carolina. The idea of Romney's inevitability has been founded on the basis that he was on course to an unprecedented triple win in the first three states. If Gingrich pulls off a dramatic upset in South Carolina, that would mean Romney would only have won New Hampshire, his adopted home state. In that scenario most, if not all, bets would be off.
10.03am: It seems that Newt Gingrich has been courting the Perry camp in the past few days, with Politico saying he has been repeatedly texting the Perry campaign manager Joe Allbaugh. Politico goes on to say:
The discord within the Perry campaign was evident even as the candidate prepared to drop out. Top officials in Texas said they were unaware of his intentions and as late as this morning said they genuinely didn't know whether he was still running.
Perry has been unpredictable before — back in Texas to reassess his campaign's viability following his fifth place finish in the Iowa caucuses, Perry surprised even many in his inner circle by personally tweeting a message saying he was staying in the race, and heading to South Carolina to campaign.
9.46am: Rick Perry will endorse Newt Gingrich when he speaks at 11am here in Charleston. Gingrich is certainly the man with the momentum at the moment, and this endorsement will be a huge shot in the arm ahead of tonight's debate.
Mark Halperin of Time magazine says Gingrich and Perry met secretly yesterday – and speculates that if Perry channels is Texas fundrasing machine towards Gingrich, that would be an even more significant move.
9.33am: Rick Perry is understood to be holding a press conference at 11am to confirm that he is pulling out of the race later this morning.
9.22am: CNN is reporting that Rick Perry, the Texas governor who entered the race as frontrunner but is now trailing all the other main candidates, will pull out of the race today. It's significant that CNN should break this story – the network is hosing the debate tonight, and if Perry has indicated he will not take part, they would be the first to know.
9.16am: Newt Gingrich was on the Today show just after 7am this morning, and host Ann Curry pressed him hard on accusations that he had played the "race card" in order to gain ground in South Carolina, a state where, as Curry pointed out, the Confederate flag flies over the capitol building in Columbia – a politically charged symbol that was supported by Republicans here. Gingrich was bullish, saying that the race card criticism was levelled by his oppponents who had "no defense of liberal solutions that have failed".
Curry also pressed him on whether he was worried what his former wife, Marianne, would say in an ABC interview tonight. He revealed that his daughters have written to the president of ABC news, asking him not to air the interview. "Intruding into family things that are more than a decade old is just wrong," he said. "I am a 68-year-old-granfather. People see how close I am to my wife Calista."
Ah, pity poor Newt, the cuddly grandfather.
9.06am: Here's a full summary of the main news lines of the campaign today, compiled by Ryan Devereaux.
Republican party officials are set to announce that Mitt Romney's narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses will be rescinded. At 9:15am ET the chairman of Iowa's Republican party is expected to announce that the winner of the Iowa contest cannot be determined due to missing results from eight of the state's 1,774 precincts. Of the results that could be locate, officials say Rick Santorum actually finished 34 votes ahead of Romney.
The Iowa caucuses do not determine the number of delegates accorded to the winner of the contest, so the change-up does not materially alter the race for the Republican nomination. It may, however, provide a renewed sense of momentum for Rick Santorum as the candidates head into this weekend's primaries in South Carolina.
Newt Gingrich is enjoying a surge in popularity following Monday night's raucous South Carolina debate. A new NBC News/Marist poll shows that while Mitt Romney still leads the race by 10 points, Gingrich is gaining considerable ground. Coming into Monday night's debate Romney held a 15 point lead over Gingrich, with 37% of likely South Carolina primary voters expressing support for the former Massachusetts governor. By Tuesday Romney's lead over Gingrich had been cut to just five points. The former House Speaker received numerous rounds of applause Monday night for defending his characterization of Barack Obama as a "food stamp president" and calling on Romney to release his tax records.
Gingrich's popularity with cultural conservatives will be tested tonight as ABC is airs an interview with his second wife. His marriage to Marianne Gingrich has been the subject of much scrutiny. The former speaker reportedly proposed to Marianne while he was still married to his first wife and has admitted to infidelity with former congressional aide Callista Bisek, who went on to become his third wife. Gingrich says he and Marianne now have no relationship.
Candidates tonight take part in their final TV debate before Saturday's primary. The remaining five – Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Ron Paul and Rick Perry – will face off in Charleston, South Carolina in a two-hour debate sponsored by CNN and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference.
9.00am: Good morning: this is Matt Wells reporting from Charleston, South Carolina, and welcome to our continuing live coverage of the Republican presidential nomination process. And the process itself is in some disarray this morning with the Iowa GOP announcing that it can't tell us who won the vote in its state.
On the night, it was announced that Mitt Romney had won by a wafer-thin margin of eight votes. Today, the Iowa GOP is due to announce that according to the results that it has audited, Rick Santorum snatched it by 34 votes.
But it's not prepared to issue a certified result, because votes from eight precincts are missing.
There'll be an official announcement from the Iowa GOP soon. Also today, there are signs that Newt Gingrich is building on his strong performance from Monday's TV debate – with another one scheduled for tonight. And with Gingrich due to release his tax returns, it's shaping up to be a busy day.
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19 January 2012 2:24PM
Oh please please please GOP choose Gingrich as the presidential candidate.
He doesn't stand a snowball's chance in hell of beating Obama. Obama will be laughing all the way to the voting booth.
19 January 2012 2:25PM
Fox are - somewhat gleefully - saying that Perry will drop out and endorse Gingrich.
19 January 2012 2:26PM
Stripped him down to his magic undies?
19 January 2012 2:27PM
So that just leaves Romney, Paul, Gingrich and..... and..... who's the other one?
Oops
19 January 2012 2:29PM
I couldn't have put it better.
Actually, the whole "debate"-"primary" thing is pretty much hosed. Time to abandon these wastes of money entirely?
19 January 2012 2:29PM
Can I mention here that Colbert's campaign to get people to vote for him through Herman Cain is %*!£ing brilliant?
19 January 2012 2:31PM
Gingrich is a real piece of work.
Serving divorce papers to one of his ex wives as she lay in her hospital bed recovering from surgery no less.
One was dumped for not being attractive enough as his political wife (hmmm, shades of the secretly gay British tory MPs advised to get a wife for appearances.....how vile is that?) and then there is his current one.
Wow.
Not in a good way.
That fake everything plastic look down to a tee......does that really appeal to regular people?
But of course when it comes to the right-wing their moralising about personal behaviour and values is for other people, never themselves.
Spot the hypocrites.
19 January 2012 2:32PM
I wish that the liberal press would stop using GOP (Grand Old Party) to describe the modern republican party. There's nothing grand about them now, they're all batshit crazy.
19 January 2012 2:34PM
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19 January 2012 2:39PM
If Perry endorses Gingrich then it's all up for grabs!
19 January 2012 2:40PM
So it's down to Rove, Gingrich and Frothy.
19 January 2012 2:41PM
I have to say that I feel diminished whenever one of the Republican candidates withdraws. They are all so off their heads and they provide such wonderful entertainment value.
Is there still time for Sarah Palin to make a comeback? Please.
19 January 2012 2:42PM
One less nutter in the running. Sadly, Gingrich is still there, and he's completely batshit crazy as well.
19 January 2012 2:43PM
Rick Perry appeared to be a complete idiot so I suppose it's good news.
Gingrich is a nasty piece of work. I bet his ex-wife is gleefully relishing her chance to assassinate his character live on TV. I certainly sounds as if she has grounds to do so.
Romney still looks like the only candidate who might ever be electable, though I don't think he'd beat Obama.
Poospunk's crazy anti-gay comments over the years make him unelectable.
Ron Paul has given his opponents all the ammo they need.
19 January 2012 2:44PM
In the other breaking news Rick Santorum won Iowa by 32 votes. The entertainment value has just gone up.
19 January 2012 2:45PM
Another great mind vacates the stage.
19 January 2012 2:48PM
You don't have to be in the pew every Sunday to realise that Rick Perry is batshit insane and shouldn't be let within a country mile of the White House.
19 January 2012 2:48PM
Ron Paul's opponents dont really need ammo (after all, its difficult to actually argue against most of his platform), they just need to point loudly and declaim "look at the extremist!" over and over again.
19 January 2012 2:48PM
or just another vacant mind gyrating wildly away from it.
19 January 2012 2:50PM
wonder why it is that politics and anonymity brings out the worst in people?
19 January 2012 2:50PM
I expect Dubya (or Jeb) still has a few spare chads hanging around if the result needs tickling up a bit.
19 January 2012 2:52PM
I was surprised Sarah didn't picked enough "write-ins" (is that the term, is it still alowed /) to win the Iowa caucus.
19 January 2012 2:52PM
And nasty with it!
19 January 2012 2:53PM
No. It is breaking on BBC mate via twitter.
19 January 2012 2:53PM
I guess Mr. Romney can now head back to Texas and declare all out war on Turkey.
Here is a look at some of the Political Action Committees backing the remaining Republican Presidential candidates and how difficult it is to follow the trail of individual contributions as funds are moved from one PAC to another:
http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2012/01/americas-political-action-committees.html
Unfortunately for democracy, American politics are increasingly being driven by single-agenda committees.
19 January 2012 2:55PM
Texas governor Rick Perry pulls out of Republican race
Were the problems caused by "hanging chads" perhaps? Maybe, the GOP should ask an independent outsider (Al Gore?) to investigate.
19 January 2012 2:56PM
"Perry Pulls Out For Post-coital Snooze."
19 January 2012 2:56PM
There's only one candidate with even the remotest chance of beating Obama, and that's Mitt Romney. Why the Republican Party are either entertaining the other candidates, and their mental ways, is a mystery.
19 January 2012 2:58PM
Sanitorium.
19 January 2012 2:59PM
I've said it before - Perry's performance since July has to have been one of the biggest disappointments in primary history (among 'serious' candidates anyway). He's really shown how low the bar is set to be governor of a state. The anti-Jed Bartlet, if you will.
Does this help Gingrich? Yes, financially, and in terms of potential support. It also solidifies his position as not-Romney. Santorum needs a great debate tonight and a really eye-catching few days or it's curtains for him come Wednesday.
Still hard to see how Gingrich seriously challenges Romney throughout primary season, but keeps the question open into February at least, I think. And Gingrich doesn't beat Obama. Not unless the economy completely tanks.
19 January 2012 2:59PM
Many other news media is now going with news. Final winner of Iowa: Rick Santorum.
Lets the circus begins. It likely to be blood bath at Rep from now on:
Breaking News @BreakingNews 21m
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Rick Santorum won Jan 3 Iowa Republican US presidential caucuses by 34 votes, according to certified results - @Reuters
19 January 2012 3:00PM
Come on Gingrich!!! Bring down Romney's Temple.
I think all old Newt wants to do is get a historic debate with President Obama.He doesn't have to win. He just want to see himself in the thirty minute Lincoln-Douglas debate. So he can land himself in the pages of history.
19 January 2012 3:00PM
Romney : He is too Liberal for most of the Conservative Republican voters.
Gingrich, Perry, Paul : They are too Conservative for most main stream Republicans and would not be able to take on Obama.
...
There will be only one winner of this election and it will be Obama - though not perhaps by a huge landslide because of the race and economy issues if/when Romney gets the R. ticket.
2016 will be the big test for the Democrats, with, one assumes, Clinton their nomination.
19 January 2012 3:00PM
"....Gingrich is a nasty piece of work. I bet his ex-wife is gleefully relishing her chance to assassinate his character live on TV. I certainly sounds as if she has grounds to do so......".
Here's hoping that she turns that porcine-faced thug into figurative bacon.
19 January 2012 3:03PM
Time for the Spawn of Ron to show up.
19 January 2012 3:07PM
Ron Paul had better start thinking about his security arrangements as he is toast if the banksters think for one second that their man - and that is everyone else - isn't getting in. End the Fed.
19 January 2012 3:08PM
2 Catholics, a Mormon and a Libertarian walk into a bar in Florence, South Carolina.
They walk in single file, smallest guy in front, with the three big guys jostling one another to stay at the back.
All the regulars turn and stare at them, and stare at them some more.
Then they're gone.
Not from these parts, says the bar-keep.
19 January 2012 3:08PM
No Rick! Don't Go! Who’s going to stop gay soldiers disrupting kid’s prayer in schools!
19 January 2012 3:09PM
Like the Wicker Man, but without Britt Ekland's charm
19 January 2012 3:11PM
What would Gingrich's chances be in the general election, should he win the nomination? This is getting scary....
19 January 2012 3:11PM
Newt Gingrich is the man with the momentum?
Obama must be over the moon.
It's all academic anyway. Romney will win the nomination and lose the election. Ron Paul should run as a third candidate, as much as he's a christian lunatic, he does have plenty of legitimate things to say about expansionism and endemic corruption. Which places him in a unique position as the only person in US politics mentioning issues that exist in reality.
19 January 2012 3:11PM
Adios, Rick.
19 January 2012 3:11PM
Looks like another happy day on the campaign trail for RoboRomney.
He didn't win in Iowa, as many of us suspected.
Perry and Palin endorsed Newt.
Ron Paul is showing no signs of leaivng the race, so he'll keep getting 2o or 25pct of the primary vote (and delegates to match).
And the Bain Capital is the gift that just keeps on giving to Newt, who's catching up in the SC polls.
We're gonna have ourselves a hung GOP convention.
That's when the fun really begins, and when Obama clinches the race.
19 January 2012 3:12PM
His chances would rival that of a snowball's chance in hell. Don't worry.
19 January 2012 3:12PM
The real election in November has always been Obama's to lose. But I don't think he can easily fail against any of these clowns! They're unbelievable..........
19 January 2012 3:13PM
Another vacant mind exits the stage, you mean.
19 January 2012 3:13PM
A hung convention? Will they be selling pieces of the rope?
19 January 2012 3:14PM
All of this is irrelevant to the n-th degree as Obama will walk it.
19 January 2012 3:15PM
Lots of silliness going on. Will the interview with Newt's ex have any impact? Will Romney start to play offense, knowing the old football saying, that defense wins games?
Only one recent item got my blood boiling?
The man who made that decision should not be president, IMHO. The ups and downs of the Republican nominating process pale in comparison. All the Republican contenders would do better for the American working person.
19 January 2012 3:17PM
Ah that explains the last three weeks then. Perhaps he wasn't even runnning.
In any case there are three good reasons for him to give up the race, but I'm afraid I forgot them all.