So far there seem to be no real surprises in Nevada — especially since three of the four GOP candidates aren’t even currently in the state — but the caucus voting is still going on:

With a huge lead in polls, Republican front-runner Mitt Romney appeared poised for an easy win in Nevada on Saturday that would put him in firm command of the party’s see-sawing presidential nominating race.

A Nevada victory would be Romney’s second win in a row and his third in the first five contests in the state-by-state battle to find a Republican challenger to President Barack Obama in November’s general election.

Two polls taken this week in Nevada showed the former Massachusetts governor with a lead of 20 points or more over top rival Newt Gingrich after recapturing his front-runner status with a convincing win in Florida on Tuesday.

The caucuses began at many of the 125 sites around Nevada on Saturday morning, although final results were not expected until after 7 p.m. PST (0300 Sunday GMT). A final gathering of voters to accommodate Jews observing the Sabbath on Saturday will begin in Las Vegas at that time.

As for the actual voting, early on it appears to be falling in line with most of the polls.

The day hasn’t been without its problems:

Caucus-goers eager to take on their civic duty today were met with chaos and confusion at Green Valley High School in Henderson.

Frustrated voters tell Action News that some in attendance were given “unofficial” ballots. Several people cast their votes on unauthorized pieces of paper and left before the official blue ballots were handed out.

Witnesses were alarmed that their peers’ votes would go uncounted and blamed the caucus leaders for the disorganization.

For a minute there I thought they were going to say the ballots somehow had Harry Reid’s name pre-checked.

After today’s over, upcoming caucuses are Maine, Colorado and Minnesota. Super Tuesday is just over a month away. Who will be left standing?

I’ll post an update later when there are some solid numbers in.

Update: Fox5 has the latest. No surprises here:

The Nevada Republican Party announced the first results of the state’s presidential caucus Saturday, showing former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney with the early lead.

Romney scored victories in rural Eureka County, as well as Humboldt, Storey, Churchill and Pershing counties.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won Mineral County, while Texas Rep. Ron Paul easily won Nye County with 46 percent of the vote and scored a second victory by winning neighboring Esmeralda County.

Also, Business Insider reports that tonight Newt Gingrich will “lay out a delegate-based strategy that will allow him to make good on his promise to stay in the race until the Republican National Convention this summer.”

Update II: This was about as surprising as finding out Harry Reid doesn’t plan to propose a budget this year: ABC calls it for Romney.

The chase for runner-up between Gingrich and Paul is still too close to call. Santorum will finish fourth.

Update III: The latest numbers:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Before we chew on any of the possibilities, it’s important to remember that the next season of Celebrity Apprentice kicks off in just over two weeks, and The Donald isn’t one to let a prime promotional opportunity slip by.

With that little disclaimer out of the way, there’s this from KLAS-TV:

An advisor to Donald Trump says he will make a major announcement in Las Vegas tomorrow. Sources tell the 8 News NOW I-Team Trump will endorse Newt Gingrich.

According to Trump advisor Michael Cohen, “Donald J. Trump will be making a major announcement tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. at Trump International Hotel & Tower, Las Vegas, Nevada… The announcement will pertain to the Presidential race.”

Gingrich says he’s in the dark as to what Trump’s up to:

“I have no idea what The Donald is going to do,” Mr. Gingrich said. “He is always interesting, and I don’t know of anybody who does a better job of getting attention by announcing that he will presently announce something.”

How valuable would a Trump endorsement be for Gingrich? Trump’s not exactly a staunch conservative, and that’s the kind of support Gingrich needs right now — especially since Romney’s been saying things that move him to the center so much that Mitt’s in danger of being mistaken for a fulcrum.

Other possibilities: Trump will announce a third party run while pitching the new season of Celebrity Apprentice — or Trump might announce an endorsement of Romney while pitching the new season of Celebrity Apprentice. Trump might also pitch the next season of Celebrity Apprentice while announcing an endorsement for Rick Santorum or Ron Paul. Another possibility is that Trump will announce plans for a new show called “The GOP Candidate Apprentice” which will award a substantial donation to the campaign of the candidate who can most effectively promote Celebrity Apprentice.

Update: The AP is now reporting that Trump will endorse Romney… and promote Celebrity Apprentice, of course.

Update II: Yep, Romney it is. The continual media flip-flop provided a fitting lead-in.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Fifty delegates are at stake in today’s winner-take-all Florida primary. The polls close at 8 p.m. EST. Let’s kick off an open thread for comments on the results as they come in. As of 9:15 p.m. with 78% of the precincts reporting, Romney is up on Gingrich 47% to 32% Santorum has 13%, Paul is at 7%, and in Palm Beach County I’m told there were three five accidental votes for Pat Buchanan.

CNN has an up-to-the-minute vote tally and county results here. No word yet on who’s ahead in the cracker counties.

We’ll have updates as soon as anything worth mentioning happens. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves!

Update: Networks saying they’ll be able to call it at 8 p.m. Romney it is.

Update II: CNN calls it for Romney. Ditto for Fox News.

Delegate count after tonight with 1144 needed: Romney-84, Gingrich-27, Santorum-10, Paul-8 (h/t Curtis Kalin). The WSJ has it slightly different but you get the gist.

A little near future speculation on the delegate front:

With Mitt Romney’s win in Florida tonight, he has won all of the state’s 50 delegates – although there is some chance the outcome could be disputed because Florida’s winner-take-all allocation is technically in violation of Republican party rules.

But assume that the outcome holds, and that Mr. Romney also wins Virginia on Mar. 6, where only he and Ron Paul are on the ballot. Virginia awards all of its delegates to the winner if he or she gets at least 50 percent of the vote. By definition, the winner in a two-way race will have at least 50 percent of the vote, and the winner is likely to be Mr. Romney in a head-to-head contest against Mr. Paul.

That would give Mr. Romney a total of 96 delegates between Florida and Virginia alone (Virginia has 49 delegates, but three of them are automatic delegates, often called super delegates). Although this represents only 8 percent of the delegates that Mr. Romney would eventually need to cinch the Republican race, it would nevertheless constitute a tangible advantage in the event of a close back-and-forth race against Mr. Gingrich.

A reporter caught up with Gingrich to ask if he still sees a path to the nomination. “Of course…” (h/t HAP):

Update III: Good news: Rick Santorum said his daughter is doing much better after being hospitalized with a serious condition.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

You can peruse my Twitter page for highlights and lowlights of the CNN GOP debate in Florida, but this basically sums it up:

Wolf Blitzer went all Oprah/TMZ with his fishing into the candidates’ wives’ lives.

Newt doubled down on open-borders stupid and gave an indignant defense of illegal alien grandmothers that the SEIU and La Raza would love. To which Romney aptly replied: “The problem isn’t 11 million illegal alien grandmothers.”

Rick Santorum and Ron Paul sparred over Latin American dictators and freedom-fighters. Paul supporters the former. Santorum supports the latter.

Paul shined where he’s strongest — providing a clarion stand against government bailouts. Santorum landed solid blows on health care and the individual mandate supported by both Romney and Gingrich. Romney failed to defend his painfully exposed Achilles’ heel, Romneycare — and bizarrely argued that we needn’t “get angry about it.” Smile while your budgets are hemorrhaging…

Santorum also said encouraging things about the need to get entitlements under control instead of spending on pie-in-the-sky moon missions. Then again, this is a guy who supported the massive prescription drug entitlement under Bush.

Sigh.

Blitzer devoted an embarrassing amount of time to Gingrich’s moon colonization plan, prompting Paul (here I am saying something positive about Paul again!) to jibe that the only people we need to send to the moon are some politicians.

Score.

I was glad to take my nose plugs off for a fleeting moment and appreciate some lively, substantive debate — even if it happened unintentionally between bouts of Wolf Blitzer-led bloviations and special interest-pandering. There was no Macarena, but Wolf and the candidates came pretty close.

Big loser: Gingrich.

Big gainer: Santorum.

Big surprise: Paul’s likeability factor, even if he is completely on the moon when it comes to Israel, jihadists, and national security.

Big, unchanged reality: Big Government Romney, Big Government Gingrich, and Not As Big A Government As He Voted For When He Was in the Senate But Still Too Big Government Santorum.

The journey/march/slog (towards a brokered convention??????) continues…

Yesterday, the SEIU and left-wing USA Action launched Spanish-language radio attacks on Mitt Romney for his support of immigration enforcement measures. One of Romney’s advisers is Kris Kobach — a constitutional law professor, Kansas Secretary of State, and staunch leader in the fight against illegal alien amnesty and ACORN-style voter fraud.

Eliseo Medina, the secretary-treasurer of Service Employees International Union, blasted Romney on Monday during a conference call announcing a Spanish-language radio ad the union is launching in partnership with Priorities USA Action, a super-PAC supporting President Obama.

Medina, the No. 2 official at the influential union, was reacting to an answer Romney gave at a debate Monday night where he said “self-deportation” was the answer to ridding the country of illegal immigrants.

“It’s basically to say, ‘Make their life miserable’” by refusing to rent to them or to provide access to heat and water,” Medina said. “Make it difficult for their kids and their schools.”

Asked by The Hill how Romney’s comments could be construed to imply that illegal immigrants should be denied basic necessities, Medina pointed to Romney’s close relationship with Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who has endorsed Romney. Kobach has been credit with writing most of Alabama’s harsh anti-illegal immigration law, which has been challenged in the courts.

“Mr. Romney has said he wants to support and he joins in supporting Kris Kobach,” Medina said. “When he says he supports those kinds of policies, he has to own all of it.”

“This is a dishonest smear from President Obama’s liberal allies and a desperate attempt to distract from his abysmal record,” said Romney adviser Albert Martinez. “It will do nothing to help the millions of Hispanics who have been hit especially hard as a result of the Obama economy.”

Martinez said Hispanics, like all Floridians, believe Romney is the best person to rebuild the economy and to replace Obama.

Well, look now, who’s mimicking the open-borders SEIU and blurring the lines between illegal and legal immigration.

Yep. Newt Gingrich:

Sen. Marco Rubio scolded Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign over a Spanish-language radio ad that accuses rival Mitt Romney of being “anti-immigrant”

“This kind of language is more than just unfortunate. It’s inaccurate, inflammatory, and doesn’t belong in this campaign,” Rubio told The Miami Herald when asked about the ad.

“The truth is that neither of these two men is anti-immigrant,” Rubio said. “Both are pro-legal immigration and both have positive messages that play well in the Hispanic community.”

Rubio’s sharp rebuke comes a day after he subtly corrected Gingrich for comparing Romney to former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, branded by conservatives as a turncoat who left the party before Rubio beat him in 2010.

The criticisms from someone of Rubio’s stature in the Republican Party comes as polls show a near-even race, albeit with Gingrich surging.

Rubio plans to stay neutral in the race. He’s a potential running mate whom both candidates would love to have on the ballot.

The truth is that neither Gingrich nor Romney has a strong, consistent overall record on border security and enforcement. But at least Romney’s been traveling in the right direction…while Gingrich once again echoes left-wing language and plays the race card to get ahead.

Nose plugs. Get out yer nose plugs.

***

Newt and his supporters have been deriding the notion of self-deportation as some sort of alien, offensive concept. Long-time readers of this blog and of my investigative work on immigration have been familiar with it for years. It’s attrition through enforcement, it’s humane, and it works.

***

Can you be more two-faced? Newt has been winning massive adoration and applause for claiming he’ll stand up for states like South Carolina and Alabama, which have been sued by the Obama DOJ over tough immigration laws. Then he joins the likes of the SEIU and slams the very “anti-immigrant” policies authored by Kris Kobach that the Obama DOJ wants to overturn.

Emetic of the day.

***

Update: Newt retreats. From GOP Hispanic leaders calling him out, via the Miami Herald:

While we may have differences of opinion with regard to some of Governor Romney’s policies on immigration, we nonetheless stand firmly behind him because we know he is the most qualified conservative candidate to defeat President Obama and to lift up all Americans, including Hispanics.

In December, Nancy Pelosi was bragging about having dirt on Newt Gingrich. Shortly after that, she backed off.

As evidenced by an appearance with CNN’s John King, Pelosi wants to once again play the “inside information” game and can’t contain herself:

Pelosi: “He’s not going to be President of the United States. That’s not going to happen. Let me just make my prediction and stand by it, it isn’t going to happen.”

King: “Why are you so sure?”

Pelosi: “There is something I know. The Republicans, if they choose to nominate him that’s their prerogative. I don’t even think that’s going to happen.”

Geez… did something happen on the global warming couch that we don’t yet know about?

You have to watch the video to capture the full glory of Pelosi’s giddy, sophomoric attitude. She behaves like a high schooler who found the letterman jacket of the opposing school’s quarterback in the back seat of the car of the girl who beat her out for homecoming queen — and is dying to tell somebody about it just before the game.

Click the pic to roll tape:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Tonight will mark the 17th Republican debate (but it doesn’t feel like it’s been a day over 16 debates). It comes just as Mitt Romney’s 22 point lead in Florida has disappeared, and Rasmussen now has Newt Gingrich with an 11 point lead on Romney with a week to go before the Sunshine State primary. As for Florida’s 50 convention delegates, it’s winner take all, and they know it:

Before the Tampa debate started, Romney went after Gingrich in person and on the Florida airwaves.

At a campaign stop, Romney likened Gingrich to a pinball machine and suggested the former House speaker engaged in “potentially wrongful activity” in his consulting work over the past decade.

Romney then released his first negative ad of the campaign.

“While Florida families lost everything in the housing crisis, Newt Gingrich cashed in,” the TV ad says, noting that the former speaker made more than $1.6 million working for Freddie Mac. “Gingrich resigned from Congress in disgrace and then cashed in as a D.C. insider.”
[...]
Gingrich, meanwhile, is showing no signs of backing down.

During an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America,” he referred to Romney as “somebody who has released none of his business records, who has decided to make a stand on transparency without being transparent.” After initially balking, Romney is set to release personal tax records on Tuesday.

The debate starts at 9 p.m. EST on NBC. Moderator Brian Williams last seen putting an athletic cup in place in preparation for any potential fallout from his first question to Newt. You can watch live online here. I might throw in a comment or two on my Twitter feed while it’s going on.

Romney recently started airing his first anti-Newt ad in Florida. Here’s a preview of what you can expect from the recently put-on-his-heels “only electable candidate” tonight:

Related update: Sheldon Adelson drops another $5 million on pro-Gingrich super-PAC.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

(Note: Scroll down for updates)

It’s finally the Palmetto State’s turn to weigh in:

Primary day at hand, fast-climbing Newt Gingrich told South Carolinians on Saturday that he was “the only practical conservative vote” able to stop front-runner Mitt Romney in the GOP presidential race. Romney acknowledged the first-in-the-South contest “could be real close” and prepared for an extended fight by agreeing to two more debates in Florida, next on the election calendar.

Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum braced for a setback and looked ahead to the Jan. 31 contest after getting the most votes in Iowa and besting Gingrich in New Hampshire. Texas Rep. Ron Paul made plans to focus on states where his libertarian, Internet-driven message might find more of a reception with voters; his campaign said it had purchased a substantial ad buy in Nevada and Minnesota, which hold caucuses next month.

The first contest without Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who dropped out this past week and endorsed Gingrich, was seen as Romney’s to lose just days ago. Instead, the gap closed quickly between the Massachusetts governor who portrays himself as the Republicans best positioned to defeat President Barack Obama and Gingrich, the confrontational former House speaker from Georgia.

Gingrich not only closed the gap quickly in S.C., but in a couple of polls I’ve seen he’s surpassed Romney:

According to an American Research Group survey released Saturday morning, 40% of people likely to vote in South Carolina’s GOP contest say they are backing the former House speaker, with 26% supporting former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, 18% backing Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and 13% supporting former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania.

Will those numbers play out tonight? We’ll see. Any predictions? I think Newt will win, but not by that broad of a margin. Put me down for Gingrich 34 and Romney 30… maybe closer. Results should start coming in at 7:30 or 8 p.m. EST. I won’t be back home until about 10, so feel free to help keep everybody updated in comments if you’re watching.

Meanwhile, Drudge is reporting that Gingrich has canceled an appearance tomorrow morning on ABC’s This Week. Gee, I wonder why.

Update: That ARG poll cited above was pretty much spot–on. Fox News is reporting that with all precincts in, Gingrich had 40%, Romney 28%, Santorum 17% and Paul 13%.

DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz issued a statement after Gingrich’s win, and it’s clear the Democrats are still convinced Romney is going to be the nominee, because DWS didn’t even mention Newt:

“If tonight proved one thing, it’s that the central rationale of Mitt Romney’s campaign is cratering. He came into South Carolina with a 20-point lead — a state where jobs and the economy is the No. 1 issue — and the candidate who hung his entire candidacy on these issues, Mitt Romney, saw his support collapse.

Why? Because Mitt Romney’s been exposed as being out of touch with the middle class, and voters are seeing that he lives by another set of rules. He’s refused to level with voters, and now he’s in trouble. Anyone who goes into a state with a significant double-digit lead yet ends up losing that support in a week, is someone who is failing to connect.”

National Journal: Gingrich bound for Disney World. I guess Newt wasn’t kidding about trailing Obama around the country wherever he goes.

What was the reason for Newt’s late S.C. surge? Among other things, maybe we shouldn’t discount the Sarah Palin nod a few days ago.

Here’s Gingrich addressing supporters after his win:

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Yes, there’s no better way to calm the racial seas than by getting Al Sharpton involved in the conversation.

From The Hill:

Newt Gingrich was confronted by a black man outside Tommy’s Country Ham House, who questioned him on his comments on having poor children work as janitors.

The man said what Gingrich was asking for amounted to a “new form of slavery” and would force young African Americans to drop out of school.

Gingrich engaged the man, speaking levelly and holding eye contact with him. He said that he suggested the jobs so that “They can get paid — they’d go to school, stay in school instead of dropping out.”

The man persisted. “You say you want Afro-Americans to come into your political party but you’ve ratcheted [your rhetoric] up since you got down here,” he said.
[...]
The man then said he’d spoken with Rev. Al Sharpton and asked Gingrich to meet with him, Roland Martin of CNN, Ben Jealous of the NAACP and Juan Williams.

“Sure — glad to do it,” Gingrich said. “I’d be willing to do it. I know Al.”

The protester kept pushing for the meeting as Gingrich talked, demanding that he meet with the black community.

Gingrich nodded his head after the man interrupted him, and agreed. “Sure — and find a way to have everybody have a chance for a better future,” he said.

Going to Al Sharpton for advice on the subject of improving the tone of racial rhetoric is like getting help overcoming an addiction to prop comedy by talking to Carrot Top.

Newt and Al aren’t strangers, but if Gingrich does follow through on a meeting, for his own good I hope he waits until the current campaign is over… just in case the mini-summit culminates in another ill-advised public service announcement. Resist you much, Newt.

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Phew. So, it turns out:

Rick Santorum won the Iowa caucus.

Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife, Marianne, is getting her revenge. Live by scorched-earth. Die by scorched-earth, eh, Newt?

And Rick Perry is reportedly set to drop out today — removing another body from another GOP debate tonight in South Carolina and freeing up more time for more liberal media bashing, potential Romney gaffes, Ron Paul foreign policy screeds.

Looks like he is set to follow RedState founder Erick Erickson’s advice and endorse Newt:

While closer to Perry than Romney on some points, Perry campaigned on reducing the size and scope of Washington, privatizing social security, and fixing entitlements. Endorsing Santorum may leave Perry in good stead with his fellow evangelicals, but it would fly in the face of the limited government principles he outlines both on the campaign trail and in his national bestseller Fed Up!

Then there is the man who wrote the introduction to Fed Up!, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

I’m willing to bet that among activists in Texas, Newt Gingrich is more popular than Romney. His message has been rather consistent to Perry’s, including a man on a mission to gut Washington, D.C. While Gingrich lacks Perry’s limited government bona fides, he is the only other candidate in the race emphasizing that business as usual in Washington is not acceptable if the nation we love is going to survive – as Gingrich wrote in his introduction: “Devolving power out of Washington is critical to our long-term survival.” And that’s the truth.

But Erickson wrote the truth back in 2009, when he expressed deep-seated grass-roots conservative discontent and distrust of Newt:

Newt endorsing Scozzafava aligns him with Markos Moulitsas who declared Dede the most liberal candidate in the race.

That aligns Newt with ACORN, which has twice endorsed Dede.

That aligns Newt with Planned Parenthood and NARAL, active supporters of Dede.

That aligns Newt with the SEIU, the AFL-CIO, and a host of other left wing interest groups including the gay marriage lobby.

Today Newt Gingrich stands athwart history and pees on the legacy of 1994, where it is no longer about principles, ideas, ideals, and integrity, but the raw acquisition of power for the sake of power. He aligns with a candidate to the left of the Democrat.

The GOP will not take back power until it repents of its sins that caused it to lose power. And chief among those sins was the abandonment of principle for the sake of power. But when a political party stands for nothing, it fails to stand.

At least we can thank Newt today for declaring himself out of the 2012 race. Or, should he stay in, conservatives at least no longer have to feel under any obligation to stick with him, since he makes clear in NY-23 as he did in MD-01 that he feels under no obligation to stick with conservatives.

Here is the awful GOP conundrum. We have a liberal Northeastern Republican front-runner, Mitt Romney, who can’t articulate conservative principles. And we have a Beltway insider with massive moral baggage, Newt Gingrich, who believes he’s above living conservative principles. Via Hot Air:

[Ex-wife Marianne Gingrich] kind of guessed it, of course. Women usually do. But did she know the woman was in her apartment, eating off her plates, sleeping in her bed?

She called a minister they both trusted. He came over to the house the next day and worked with them the whole weekend, but Gingrich just kept saying she was a Jaguar and all he wanted was a Chevrolet. “‘I can’t handle a Jaguar right now.’ He said that many times. ‘All I want is a Chevrolet.’”

He asked her to just tolerate the affair, an offer she refused.

He’d just returned from Erie, Pennsylvania, where he’d given a speech full of high sentiments about compassion and family values.

The next night, they sat talking out on their back patio in Georgia. She said, “How do you give that speech and do what you’re doing?”

“It doesn’t matter what I do,” he answered. “People need to hear what I have to say. There’s no one else who can say what I can say. It doesn’t matter what I live.”

Noseplugs, anyone?

***

Perry post-mortem: I see that Team Perry is already blaming “fringe” pundits for exercising inordinate influence on voters.

Newsflash: Perry did himself in. All by himself.

***

Should be quite a Final Four debate tonight. Will the Non-Romneys focus more on each other? Or the lib CNN moderators? More SuperPAC-a-palooza whining? Submit your debate questions here.

***

Update 11am Eastern Rick Perry announces suspension of his campaign. Throws endorsement, as expected, to Newt Gingrich. Absolves him for not being “perfect” and preaches redemption ahead of Marianne Gingrich “open marriage” interview with ABC News.

Perry: Newt is a “visionary” who can “transform our country.”

How about less transformation and more restoration?

Perry’s last words: “I have just begun to fight” for conservatism.

Good to know.

And now…Rick Perry can now make Washington more inconsequential in Americans’ lives — by making it more inconsequential in his.

***

Flashback video via Drudge Report: Perry slams marital cheaters. “If you cheat on your wife, you’ll cheat on your business partner:”

I was sitting around the house trying to shake off a one-point Michigan State loss to Michigan when my Twitter feed went crazy with questions like “did Palin just endorse Gingrich?”

It turned out that Sarah Palin was on with Sean Hannity tonight, where she had apparently given a rationed, carefully measured nod to Newt. Sarah’s husband Todd had previously endorsed Gingrich. Having missed Hannity tonight, I managed to find video of the segment at the always on-the-ball Right Scoop. Here’s my best effort at a transcript of the relevant portion:

Hannity: We talked last time about Todd your husband going rogue — you haven’t gone rogue yet. You haven’t given an endorsement. Are you getting any closer to giving an endorsement?

Palin: Well, I could tell you what I would do if I was a South Carolinian [...] If I had to vote in South Carolina, in order to keep this thing going, I’d vote for Newt, and I would want this to continue. More debates. More vetting of candidates. Because we know that the mistake in our country, four years ago, was having a candidate who was not vetted to the degree that he should have been so that we knew what his associations and his pals represented and what went into his thinking — the shaping of who our president today is. That vetting did not take place. I want to see that taking place this time because America is on that precipice — it’s that important. We need this process to continue.

So, did Sarah just endorse Newt? Well, maybe, if we allow more qualifiers than the Boston Marathon. She’s saying that Romney shouldn’t be the default nominee at this point and that the process should go on a little longer so the GOP doesn’t have an un-vetted candidate like the Democrats did in 2008 — as if that’s possible. It’s not as if the media wouldn’t have stayed in the tank for Obama if only Hillary could have held out a little longer in the primary process.

Click the pic to go to Right Scoop and roll tape of the segment. Decide for yourself if this is an endorsement of Gingrich, or the placement of a “proceed with extreme caution” sign on Romney. Also, will it move the needle at all for Newt in SC?

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

Another Republican debate showdown. Fox News Channel hosts the final five GOP in Myrtle Beach, S.C. starting at 9pm Eastern.

The hosts: Bret Baier of Fox News’ ‘Special Report’ and Gerald Seib of the Wall Street Journal.

You can watch live online here.

Twitter users can play “#dodge” or “#answer” .

Seven more GOP debates from now through March 19.

Have we reached an over-saturation point?

January 19, 2012 8pm ET on CNN
Location: Charleston, SC
Sponsor: CNN and the Southern Republican Leadership Conference
Participants: Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, Paul, Perry*

March 19, 2012 9pm ET on PBS
Location: Portland, OR
Sponsor: Oregon Public Broadcasting, NPR, PBS, The Washington Times and the Oregon Republican Party
Participants: TBD

The silver lining? No more smarmy Huntsman.

***

Update: The Non-Romneys tried to recover from their utter incompetence last week. They backed away from the most extreme Occupier rhetoric on Bain Capital, and instead carped about SuperPAC ads. (Newt learned from last debate not to hide behind NYTimes. Invoked Wall Street Journal instead.)

Santorum curiously made his stand in favor of ex-felons voting and complained about a SuperPAC ad that mentioned his Senate record on that issue.

Perry dodged a question about his “vulture capitalism” rhetoric by calling on Romney to release his income tax returns.

Rick Santorum tried to rationalize voting against right-to-work by explaining it’s because he was representing Pennsylvania.

Not exactly the kind of “bold leadership” skills he accuses his opponents of lacking.

Perry’s best moment: Taking on Obama over voter/photo ID fight with South Carolina. Gov. Nikki Haley, Romney supporter, applauded.

Romney stutters on question about his vote for assault weapons ban, whether he has hunted since 2007.

Skipped Ron Paul foreign policy screed.

Gingrich whines about SuperPACs. Romney complains about SuperPACs.

Romney admits: “McCain Feingold was a disaster.”

(But hey, he’s proud of his BigGovRepub McCain endorsement!)

Gingrich and Perry supporters on Twitter are over the moon. (Vid of Gingrich vs. Juan Williams on welfare and standing ovation from crowd here.)

Exit question: Too little, too late?

Inconvenient reminder of core incompetencies. Good debate nights can’t fix those.

***

Washington Times, Joseph Curl: Goodbye, Newt, and good riddance

***

Romney endorser Nikki Haley tweeted tonight: “Great debate tonight in South Carolina! The energy of the people in the state is electric!”

FNC’s Sean Hannity agreed.

Transcript of the debate via @FoxNewsInsider here.

The South Carolina primary is a week from tomorrow, and according to Rasmussen, Newt Gingrich is, as Ron Paul might say, nibbling at Romney’s heels:

Mitt Romney still holds first place in the South Carolina Primary field, while his opponents jockey for second with the voting eight days away.

The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Republican Primary Voters in South Carolina finds Romney ahead with 28% support, but now former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is in second place with 21% of the vote. Support for former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum who was in second a week ago has fallen back to 16%, putting him dead even with Texas Congressman Ron Paul who also earns 16%.

Maybe the “dog on the roof” ads have been working. I’m told by unreliable sources that the Newt camp is producing two other anti-Romney ads along the same lines entitled “bunny on the bike rack” and “cute kitten in the glove compartment.”

Newt’s latest ad against Romney leaves the dog behind and instead unleashes a little French taunting:

(h/t Allahpundit)

**Written by Doug Powers

Twitter @ThePowersThatBe

…not Newt Gingrich, who said he’d name the former U.N. ambassador as his Secretary of State.

Bolton is going with…Team Romney.

Via the WSJ:

Former U.N Ambassador John Bolton is set to endorse Mitt Romney and will join his top team of foreign-policy advisers, according to people close to the campaign.

Video of his announcement on Fox over at The Right Scoop. Quote: “He’s conservative enough for me.”

Your reaction?

Romney and McCain: The GOP Frenemies’ Club
by Michelle Malkin
Creators Syndicate
Copyright 2012

Michael Corleone said to “keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.” But what, pray tell, do we do with our frenemies? This is the awful, election-year quandary of movement conservatives. And everything you need to know about our heartache can be summed up in one image:

2008 presidential election loser John McCain and Mitt Romney together on the campaign trail.

When they’re together, they look like they’re holding each other (and the rest of us) hostage. Their toxic chemistry makes seething, ex-newlyweds Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries look like Fred and Ginger. In New Hampshire last week after Romney’s Iowa caucus squeaker, an overly giddy McCain mocked his endorsee for his “landslide victory.” Awkward.

Then in South Carolina on Friday, McCain mistakenly referred to Romney as “President Obama” – as Romney and South Carolina GOP governor Nikki Haley rushed to correct the gaffe. Freudian slip? Senior moment? Sabotage? All of the above?

Of course, if you choose to pal around with a double-talking, big government barnacle, you get what you deserve.

McCain is the entrenched incumbent Arizona senator/war hero who lost to a neophyte, radical leftist community organizer from Chicago. The “straight-talk” GOP candidate flip-flopped on everything from illegal immigration to global warming to offshore drilling to closing Gitmo. He pandered to minority grievance-mongers and the liberal media. He proposed massive government interventions bigger than Obama’s.

This Beltway fossil who now poses as a Tea Party hero proudly teamed with Big Government liberals Teddy Kennedy and Russ Feingold. He’s the “maverick” who supported the $700 billion TARP bailout, the $25 billion auto bailout, the first $85 billion AIG bailout, and a $300 billion mortgage bailout – yet, who now carps about “record deficits and debt.”

A career politician for the past 30 years, McCain set the stage for the suicidal anti-capitalist rhetoric now polluting the GOP primary. Four years ago this month during a GOP primary debate held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, it was McCain up on stage denigrating Romney’s private-sector experience. Asked whether he thought Romney’s record as CEO made him qualified to lead, McCain snarked: “I know how to lead. I led the largest squadron in the United States Navy. And I did it out of patriotism, not for profit.”

Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and Jon Huntsman have all followed suit, bashing Romney’s venture-capitalist past at Bain Capital with Occupy Wall Street-style zeal.

It’s one thing to carefully dissect Romney’s investments, as the Wall Street Journal did, and weigh his wins against his losses. (The paper found that “in total, Bain produced about $2.5 billion in gains for its investors in the 77 deals, on about $1.1 billion invested. Overall, Bain recorded roughly 50% to 80% annual gains in this period, which experts said was among the best track records for buyout firms in that era.”)

It’s quite another to shamelessly disparage those who work in private equities as immoral corporate raiders and avaricious job-killers, as the three aforementioned GOP Occupiers have done. If they keep it up, they’ll soon be chaining themselves together with bike locks performing “mic checks” and “down twinkles” at the next GOP debate.

Gingrich has pushed McCain’s profit-bashing line the furthest. Backed by a super PAC (the very campaign finance vehicle he was whining about last week) flush with $5 million from casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, the vendetta-driven former House Speaker accused Romney and a “handful of rich people” of “looting” companies. Channeling left-wing propagandist Michael Moore, Gingrich railed that Bain “manipulate[d] the lives of thousands of other people.” Gingrich – who raked in millions consulting for the taxpayer-subsidized Freddie Mac racket — also served on the advisory board of private equities firm and leveraged buyout experts Forstmann Little.

But, hey, it’s only “looting” if it doesn’t line your own pockets.

Mitt Romney’s chronic flip-flopping political career is teeming with reasons for grass-roots conservatives to oppose his nomination — from his support for racial preferences and government funding of abortion, liberal judges, global warming enviro-nitwittery, TARP, auto bailouts, the Obama stimulus, gun control, and of course, the Massachusetts individual health insurance mandates that presaged Obamacare. But instead of focusing on his long political record of expedience, incompetent non-Romneys have borrowed from McCain’s 2008 playbook and thrown wealth creators of all kinds who take risks in the private marketplace under the bus.

With frenemies like these, who needs Democrats?