welcome to our special election edition of ac 360. south carolina voters put their stamp on the race for the white house. newt gingrich seizes the lead as the campaign heads for florida. newt gingrich is south carolina s choice. it s a major blow to mitt romney s campaign. this is a hard fight because there s so much worth fighting for. four republicans went into this southern brawl. who will be left standing as the contest moves to florida? the votes are in. south carolina has spoken. and the biggest battleground yet is still ahead. rick santorum at 17%. ron paul at 13%. all the candidates say they are moving forward to florida. we have reporters stationed throughout south carolina as we have for the last several weeks. let s start off with gingrich headquarters. there are still a lot of folks there, romney headquarters looks like a ghostown. does the candidate move to florida tomorrow? reporter: you know, we re still waiting to hear about his travel plans. it s
i did catch up with somebody a few moments ago and they were watching the returns come in on the gingrich bus. i asked were they elated, were they exciting, doing touchdown dances? the answer is no, they were very humbled by the results down here in south carolina. and anderson, i think what happened here is that conservatives in this state, republicans in the state said they couldn t care less about newt gingrich s personal life. what they did care about was a candidate taking it to the establishment, taking it to the republican establishment, not only around the country but here in social. it was the governor of this state who was on the mitt romney team, not on the newt gingrich team. he was going after the media, which we talked about again and again, and conservatives like that, as well. but it was interesting to listen to newt gingrich s victory speech here tonight, because it wasn t so much about his rival. we heard him go on and on about mitt romney on the campaign t
that s very impressive, 71,500. he is 28 thousand votes ahead of ron paul who has come in second. jon huntsman, former utah governor coming this third, 17%. 31,886. there s a battle under way for fourth and fifth. newt gingrich right now with 81% of the precinct et reporting slightly s head of rick santorum. both at 10%. rick perry barely did anything in new hampshire. he is already in south carolina getting ready for that. let s go to mitt romney headquarters right now. candy crowley is watching what s going on. he delivered a pretty powerful speech tonight, victory speech, in new hampshire and it follows his victory. albeit by a very, very tight margin but so far candy, two for two. he is. and you know, if the romney people could have scripted this evening, it could not have gone any better for them. he had a good and solid first place, and running a distant second, ron paul, really the candidate they feared the least, the man they don t think will ever be acceptable to t
tally as it stands right now. he s 28,000 votes ahead of ron paul. huntsman comes in third. there is a battle underway for fourth and fifth. rick perry barely did anything in new hampshire. let s go over to mid romney headquarters right now. he delivered a pretty powerful victory speech. if the romney people cough scripted it could not have gone any better. a good and solid first place. ron paul, really the candidate they fear the least, the man they don t think will ever be acceptable to the mainstream of the republican party. newt gingrich, rick perry, gone down in the 10% perry. this was bound they wanted going into south carolina where they really believe looking at the polls as we all are, romney is ahead. which is why, when you listen to mitt romney, he is not really talking about his republican opponents. we know that the future of the country is better than 8 or 9% unemployment. and the failed leadership of one man. the president has run out of ideas. now he is ru
will work with republicans and figure this out. conservatives have to compromise. conservatives can t give a blank cheque to military. liberals can t give a blank cheque to welfare. both have to come together. both have to cut. you will have to cut spending. the people who wait for they front of my office i call them the beseechers. everybody has their hand out, republicans, democrats, big business, small business, we are out of money. republicans will have to give up their precious spending. democrats will have to give up those. when they come together. when they recognize the enormity of the problem, then we ll fix it. how many of you agree? he s dial testing better than almost anything i ve seen in the last 3 1/2 years i ve been doing this. what is so positive about this? he speaks the truth. he s a citizen politician. he s a real person. he understands what we are dealing with as american citizens. he wants to help. he appears that way you touched on something that