his feet. reporter: one first-time voter explains why ron paul earned her support. the way he talks, the way he communicates with people i feel is very, he s humble and i think would be a wonderful president. reporter: that certainly was not a scientific survey, a snapshot of several polling places we visited in the columbia area and i ll tell you some people we talked to off camera who were a little camera shy about their votes confirmed for us, that the debate performance was a big factor in their decision. megyn: thank you. bret: this is the second early eest republican primary in south carolina, any registered voter is allowed to vote without revealing party affiliation and each voter can only vote in one primary, republican or democrat. there were more than 2.7 million registered voters in the palmetto state as of january 1st. megyn: federal spending and unemployment are two of the major concerns, the unemployment rate is 9.9%, above the latest
romney made no difference of gingrich other than mocking reference to president obama s disney world trip. he may run into speaker gingrich in fairy tale land. he exceeded expectation in january 3 caucuses, santorum exceeded the romney vote count. we defeated mitt romney in iowa. still, paul may be poised to take third place in the first southern primary. that would be a huge setback for santorum who could have his iowa triumph eclipsed should he come in dead last in south carolina saturday now that perry is out of the race. capping off this most eventful campaign day on the trail, debate tonight at the north charlton auditorium. the g.o.p. 2012 field is now down to four, bret? bret: most eventful by far. carl, thank you. one very coveted group of people in south carolina are
fighter jet. hope you have a great weekend. we ll be back here bright and early monday morning. it will be a great weekend just watching happy friday. we ll watch that primary, as well. it will be a great saturday. live from studio 7, i m suzanne malveaux. want to get you up to speed for friday, january 20th. it s the eve of the south carolina primary. republican presidential race is now hotter than ever. newt gingrich turned up the heat on the news media in last night s debate. it started when our john king asked about an accusation by gingrich s ex-wife. she says cause to her in 199 and asked her to enter into an open marriage. would you like to take time to respond to that? no. but i will. i m frankly as tountounded that would take trash like that and use to open the debate. i m tired of the elite media protecting barack obama by attacking republicans. gingrich is back on the campaign trail in charleston. as for his ex-wife s claim that he asked for an open m
romney made no difference of gingrich other than mocking reference to president obama s disney world trip. he may run into speaker gingrich in fairy tale land. he exceeded expectation in january 3 caucuses, santorum exceeded the romney vote count. we defeated mitt romney in iowa. still, paul may be poised to take third place in the first southern primary. that would be a huge setback for santorum who could have his iowa triumph eclipsed should he come in dead last in south carolina saturday now that perry is out of the race. capping off this most eventful campaign day on the trail, debate tonight at the north charlton auditorium. the g.o.p. 2012 field is now down to four, bret? bret: most eventful by far. carl, thank you. one very coveted group of people in south carolina are
the ballot in the first southern primary. here is where things stand right now in the real clear politics average. newt gingrich leads newt gingrich by seven points and romney hitting a new high of 40% in a fox news national poll. that s a 17 point jump since last month when newt gingrich was actually in the lead. see that? the former house speaker has plunged more than 20 points. he is now in third place behind rick santorum. here is the real clear politics average of all the national polls. mitt romney up by 15 points with newt gingrich, rick santorum and ron paul in a statistical tie for second. 25 delegates on the line in the south carolina primary this saturday. most of the candidates spent the day in myrtle beach, the site of tonight s debate right here on fox news channel and campaign carl cammeron is there among them. how much could jon huntsman endorsement really help mitt romney? well, it s probably not going to hurt. whether it really makes a