McCain: I would teach Stephen Colbert ‘how to shut up’
What would Sen. John McCain want to teach Stephen Colbert if the comedian becomes the next senator from South Carolina? “How to shut up,” the Arizona Republican told reporters with a chuckle on Tuesday…
Asked what sort of senator Colbert would be, McCain deadpanned, “He would be a very valued member, in many respects, in that he seems to know everything about us, so he wouldn’t have any trouble fitting in.”
You’ll see many illuminating and helpful charts around tonight’s South Carolina primary, but none quite as awesome/amusing as the above: candidate mentions in comments to this evening’s liveblog, with all caps mentions in red.
We’ve got a slideshow up of the candidates on the trail in South Carolina. We’ll be updating throughout the night.
Happy primary day!
While you wait for the results from South Carolina to come in, may we suggest:
A review of campaign mail received by one South Carolina resident
Newt gets the nod from two teen beauty queens (and other scenes from around the Palmetto State today)
Local GOP chairwoman tells Dems they have no business being at the polls today
(Photo from Luke Vargas, via the Flickr Election 2012 pool)
Meet Paul Hines, 55, (current) Newt Gingrich supporter and owner of one hot 1999 Plymouth Prowler. The red, white and blue car reads “Tea Party 2012” on the side panel and serves as a high-speed ad for Gingrich’s campaign.
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C.—In what was billed as a political forum but felt more like an old-fashioned tent revival, Mitt Romney did his very best to fit in.
Standing on a stage before hundreds of evangelical voters on hand for a cattle call of presidential candidates sponsored by the South Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition, Romney did not attempt to mimic the fire and brimstone of Rick Perry, who appeared on stage before him.
“Get the firehouse out because I’m gonna put ‘em on fire out there!” an unusually energetic Perry had exclaimed, amid wild cheers. “You’re going to have to wet down the whole crowd. God and country! God and country!”
Romney instead kicked off his remarks with a corny joke about how he wore jeans that day because it was a revival—even though he wears jeans almost every day on the campaign trail. He then proceeded with the tried and true, the now well-tested and highly familiar lines of his usual stump speech, in which he trashes President Barack Obama’s handling of jobs and the economy.
Romney makes overtures to social conservatives in South Carolina
A new CNN/Time Magazine poll of likely Republican voters in the state finds the former Massachusetts governor with a nearly 20-point lead over his closest rival, Rick Santorum. According to the poll, Romney now leads in the state with 37 percent support, a 17-point jump since last month.
The most telling sign of the uphill battle Romney faces in South Carolina is the skepticism he faces among many leading Republicans who backed his bid four years ago. At this point in the 2008 campaign, Romney had announced more than 100 endorsements among key public officials, political operatives and fundraisers in the state. By comparison, he has announced fewer than 10 endorsements in the state, including Haley’s, this year. And many of his key staffers from 2008 remain neutral.
“I made a personal decision to keep my powder dry,” Warren Tompkins, an influential Republican strategist in the state who worked for Romney in 2008, told Yahoo News. “I wanted to see how the candidates ran their campaigns and what their commitment would be to South Carolina before making a decision. I’m under a pretty good bit of pressure right now. … But I’m going to wait until after the dust settles in Iowa to make my decision.”
Nikki Haley endorses Mitt Romney
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is backing Mitt Romney’s bid for the Republican presidential nomination—ending the suspense over one of the most sought-after endorsements in the party.
Announcing her decision on Fox News, Haley, a tea party conservative who was elected as the state’s first female governor a year ago, pointed to Romney’s private-sector background and his experience as a Republican governor in a Democratic state as the reasons behind her support.
“What I want is someone who is not part of the chaos in Washington,” Haley told Fox News.
South Carolina will host its presidential primary on Jan. 21, sources told CNN Monday morning ahead of a press conference to announce the state’s decision.
The Jan. 21 date puts 10 days between South Carolina’s first-in-the-south primary and the primary ballot in Florida. On Friday, Florida officials announced their plans to flout Republican National Committee rules and hold a primary on Jan. 31 in the hopes of becoming the fifth nominating contest of the year.
