Gingrich surges in South Carolina and Florida

By: Corbett B. Daly
Topics: Campaign 2012

(Credit: AP)

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is riding a wave of popularity, taking a commanding lead among likely Republican primary voters support in South Carolina and Florida, according to the latest NBC News/Marist poll.

Gingrich took 42 percent of likely primary voters in South Carolina, where the eventual Republican nominee has won the primary contest in every election since 1980. South Carolina holds its primary Jan. 21, after the Iowa caucuses kick off the primary season Jan. 3 and New Hampshire's Jan. 10 primary.

Gingrich's standing in South Carolina gives him nearly double the support of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Romney took 23 percent in South Carolina in the poll. Texas Rep. Ron Paul followed with 9 percent, followed by Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann with 7 percent each.

In Florida, Gingrich took 44 percent to Romney's 29 percent. Both states reflect strong surges for Gingrich, who was in single digits in Florida and South Carolina as recently as October.

Gingrich is also on top in first-in-the-nation voting state Iowa, according to a recent CNN/Time/ORC poll that showed him leading Romney 33 percent to 20 percent. In New Hampshire, a Romney stronghold, the former Massachusetts governor maintains the lead with 35 percent to Gingrich's 26 percent, according to the same poll.

The surge from Gingrich shows the difficulty for Romney, who has been polling in the mid twenties for months. A string of candidates has surged and then flopped, including Bachmann, Perry and Georgia businessman Herman Cain, who dropped out of the race earlier this month.

But Gingrich may have timed his surge perfectly, cresting just as actual voters have to make up their minds.

With that in mind, Romney began attacking the former speaker in recent days, most recently asking Gingrich to pay back close to $2 million he earned from mortgage giant Freddie Mac.

Corbett B. Daly
Corbett B. Daly is CBSNews.com's deputy politics editor.
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by RunsWithWolves December 12, 2011 5:56 PM EST: Repubs are imploding! They are making Obama look VERY Presidential. The Repubs only chance at beating Obama is Huntsman, but the GOP is too stupid to figure that out.; Reply to this comment


by jeannettelj December 12, 2011 5:25 PM EST: Lots of stupid people around.; Reply to this comment


by bajajohn1 December 12, 2011 5:19 PM EST: The Republicans have gone off the deep end. To blame the President for taking the helm of a bankrupt nation and stopping the bleeding of jobs can only be caused by a psychological category known as 'denial.'; Reply to this comment

by mountainstates1 December 12, 2011 3:59 PM EST

Gingrich is indicitave of how low the Republican party has sunk. In better times the GOP would have booted Gingrich right out of their conservative lives if just for the multiple times he's cheated on his wives, let alone being sanctioned and disciplined by his own party and kicked out as Speaker. Conservatives are directionless and have fallen completely apart.

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by bajajohn1 December 12, 2011 5:13 PM EST: Couldn't agree more with your comments, but, have you noticed the silence of the evangelical lambs from the Southern states?

by daffy64 December 12, 2011 2:50 PM EST

Cain/Palin 2012!

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by mountainstates1 December 12, 2011 3:57 PM EST: Yes! Please! We need the Saturday Night Live humor!


by bajajohn1 December 12, 2011 5:15 PM EST: Almighty Queen...tell us specifically how Gingrich would be better than President Obama?


by terrorbyGOP December 12, 2011 1:51 PM EST: Newt is doing well in Florida, whose Governor, Rick Scott, paid a $1.7 BILLION fine for Medicare fraud when he was CEO of Columbia/HCA.

Two peas in a pod, rolling around in their scam money.; Reply to this comment

by IrishWits December 12, 2011 12:53 PM EST

Newt has the morals of a dog in heat and his current wife is nothing but the latest office S--t (AKA concubine) bought and paid for by his revolving account at Tiffany's. ( ASk wife 1 & 2 and sleeze 3&4 what he got them from Tiffany's) If he wins the presdidency America would have a full fledge amoral PIG and his current office sl__t /concubine turned wife as the first skank (real ladies don't do married men for 6 years for the "sake of our country) Think he put a flag over her face first?. If this is what our country ends up with we will be the laughing stock of the real world.

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by LogWarrior December 12, 2011 1:07 PM EST: Between Obama and Newt...I would be the better choice hands down. Remember "Change we can believe in" What happen??? We hired him to fix the problems...they just got worst & worst (inexperience)...Obama is not the answer; he is part of the problem!!!


by daffy64 December 12, 2011 2:50 PM EST: by almighty-king December 12, 2011 1:18 PM EST
One thing is for sure, Newt loves women.
That is more than can be said for Obsama.

Man claims he had sex with Barack Obama and did drugs with him

-

If a man claimed he had sex and did drugs with YOU would that make it true?

Just askin'...

by Fareed17 December 12, 2011 12:49 PM EST

Who Can You Trust in the GOP Pee party nominations?

1.) You can't trust Willard to say the same story twice, move above 20% range, get one up on Newt, or to pay a $10K bet if he loses.

2.) You can't trust Newt with paying off his Tiffany account, or providing "his story" to past events, or from Inventing people, or abolishing Child Labor Laws, or in charge of Nukes.

3.) You can't trust Bachmann to eat a Corn Dog at an Iowa County fair in a lady like manner, without her eyes rolling back in her head. What was she thinking about?

4.) You can't trust Santorum to turn down a Trump the Birther debate invitation.

5.) You can't trust Huntsman to get invited to debates.

6.) You can't trust Herman Cain around women.

7.) You can't trust Perry to remember what cabinet positions he would eliminate, or how many Supreme Court Justices there are, or to mentally show up at debates.

8.) You can't trust Ron Paul from changing political parties, or to give Rick perry the names of the cabinet positions Perry would eliminate or, from eliminating all the amendments to the Constitution and the government itself, over which if elected he would be the president of nothing.

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by LogWarrior December 12, 2011 1:10 PM EST: But you can trust Obama to lead this country to ruin...


by terrorbyGOP December 12, 2011 1:45 PM EST: Deficit when Jimmy Carter left office; $1 Trillion.
Ronnie Ray Gun, who was President of the Screen Actors Guild, before he was against unions, ran up $5 Trillion in deficits while cutting taxes for the rich, deregulating the financial system and then bailing out the S&L's and Chrysler with taxpayer money causing the Wall Street crash of 1987 and 10% unemployment.
Clinton campaign signs "It's the economy stupid".
Clinton got the revenue and spending side sorted out in 8 years and left Dumya budget surpluses and no additional deficit.
Dumya decides Ronnie Ray Gun didn't do enough to destroy America so he cuts taxes for the rich, runs up another $6 Trillion in deficits and deregulates the thieves causing the $850 Billion TARP and stock market crash of 2008 leading to 10% unemployment.
Currently, the USA has the lowest effective tax rates since the 1950's but we are spending Trillions on taxpayer subsidies for global corporations that are making record profits and tax cuts for the rich while contemplating cutting Medicare and Social Security according to the GOP mantra of restoring feudalism and serfdom .
Now, we are paying almost $400 Billion a year in interest, on deficits run up by anti American GOP economic terrorists, and that will be so every year going forward, no matter who is President, because these pimps for the 1% want to bring down our Constitutionally elected President.

by wcfileds December 12, 2011 12:41 PM EST

Gingrich is the anti-0bama and that's what America requires; someone who isn't riddled with white guilt, someone like Gingrich can really "get in the face" of the enemy of America and defeat him. Romney doesn't possess this quality.

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by poopbreath December 12, 2011 12:52 PM EST: Please view this ad about Newt:

http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-ron-pauls-brutal-new-anti-gingrich-ad-2011-12

by twodm December 12, 2011 12:41 PM EST

Gingrich vs. Obama

YES

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by poopbreath December 12, 2011 12:53 PM EST: Please view this ad about Newt:

http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-ron-pauls-brutal-new-anti-gingrich-ad-2011-12