Mitt-Out a Doubt?
According to Conventional Wisdom, New Hampshire’s primary tonight (which we skipped to avoid the crowd and concentrate on other areas) will provide GOP frontrunner-in-waiting, Mitt Romney, with his second straight win and a chance to begin fulfilling pundits’ prophecies pointing to his ultimate victory. If the Granite State is his true launch pad, then South Carolina will offer the opportunity for Romney to start leaving other GOP hopefuls in the dust. But Romney’s numbers in the Granite State are slowly ratcheting down as he finally becomes the pincushion in the lead. Attack ads have, naturally, taken over the New Hampshire airwaves and the blogosphere. Some of those ads have legitimate points, while some…well…are just bizarre. Our favorite: the one that accuses Romney of starting a business with a goal of – GASP – making lots of money!
Now that Romney’s rope-a-dope strategy can no longer be used, those slings and arrows are having an effect, although most pundits think Romney will still prevail. If he wins with 30+ percent of the vote, the ensuing Primary in South Carolina may give him the octane to distance himself from the pack.
So, as the nation’s attention turns northeast, we turned our attention to the bucolic regions of the Palmetto State where we asked 993 likely voters in the South Carolina GOP primary two main questions:
If the GOP primary election for president were held today, for whom would you vote? No matter who you’re for, which candidate do you think ultimately be the GOP nominee?
Here are the results:
Type: Automated - Date: 1/9/2012 - Participants: 993 Likely voters - Margin of Error: ± 3.11%
Candidate Personally Support Ultimate Winner Gingrich 21% 17% Huntsman 4% 2% Paul 8% 5% Perry 5% 4% Romney 26% 48% Santorum 13% 8% Undecided 22% 15%
Clearly, Romney has made great strides in South Carolina–aided in part by an endorsement from that state’s popular governor and the continued underlying belief that his victory may be inevitable. Here’s how each candidate’s supporters responded to the “who will ultimately win” question in the crosstab below. (Here’s how to read the table: left to right, the first row indicates that 61% of the people who say they support Newt Gingrich think that Newt will indeed be the ultimate winner, while 1 percent of those Gingrich supporters think that Huntsman will ultimately win, and 2 percent think Ron Paul will win…and so on.) Here’s the table:
Ultimate Choice Personal Choice (below) Gingrich Huntsman Paul Perry Romney Santorum Uncertain Gingrich 61% 1% 2% 1% 27% 3% 4% Huntsman 3% 26% 6% 0% 54% 3% 9% Paul 4% 0% 38% 5% 44% 2% 7% Perry 8% 0% 2% 38% 33% 10% 10% Romney 2% 1% 1% 0% 93% 1% 2% Santorum 12% 2% 2% 2% 32% 46% 4% Uncertain 8% 0% 2% 3% 29% 2% 55%
As we’ve seen in Iowa and as others have measured throughout the nation, Romney is increasingly being viewed among the GOP as the one who will prevail. True, if there’s a surprise in New Hampshire, shifts can quickly occur in South Carolina, so we’ll revisit here soon.
But for now, Romney is hoping that tonight will finally tip over that domino that starts a chain reaction to victory.
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NOTE: This poll was paid for by We Ask America Polls™. The information has not been shared with any public official, candidate, cause or campaign.
Former Massachusetts  Mitt Romney won the first-in-the-US New Hampshire Republican  on Tuesday with 97,600 votes (39.3%). This follows his narrow victory in the  last week.  Congressman Ron Paul, who finished third in the Iowa Caucus, came in second with 56,872 votes (22.9%).  Former Utah  , who spent a great amount of resources on the primary, came in third place with 41,783 votes (16.8%).
Romney in December 2011..
The New Hampshire primary, the first primary of the election, is the second in a series of state elections that help to assign delegates to candidates to determine the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. Delegates can also be assigned from members of the , though these are unpledged and subject to change. To win the nomination, a candidate must accumulate 1,144 delegates. 

With his victory, Romney claimed seven delegates to increase his total to 25 with unpledged delegates included. Paul won three delegates for his finish to total ten delegates, placing him second overall to Romney. Despite his third place finish, Huntsman is currently sixth overall in delegates with only the two he won in New Hampshire. He currently trails former Senator Rick Santorum who has compiled eight delegates overall, followed by Texas governor Rick Perry with four, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich with three.

In his victory speech, Romney criticized President Barack Obama, saying he "wants to turn America into a European-style entitlement society," countering that he himself wants "to ensure that we remain a free and prosperous land of opportunity." Romney received a call following the results from Paul, who offered his congratulations. Paul mentioned afterwards that "He certainly had a clear-cut victory. But we’re nibbling at his heels." Paul, a , added, "I have to chuckle when they describe us as being dangerous. That’s one thing they are telling the truth about. Because we are dangerous to the status quo in this country!" 

Though some Huntsman supporters were disappointed with their candidate's third place finish, Huntsman stated his "confidence in the system is reborn because of the people of New Hampshire". He announced he would remain in the race and head to South Carolina for that state's primary on January 21.

Gingrich finished in fifth place with 23,291 votes (9.4%) slightly behind Santorum who won 23,408 votes (9.4%) despite the surge from his strong showing in the Iowa Caucus. Perry, who did not focus on New Hampshire after the Iowa Caucus, finished with 1,764 votes (0.7%).

The campaigns now head to South Carolina, where all six major candidates still in the race will compete. The latest ''We Ask America'' poll from South Carolina shows Romney with 26 percent, ahead of Gingrich with 21 percent and Santorum with 13 percent.