Win or lose today, he will head to Florida for the crucial Jan. 31 primary that could determine how long the Republican nominating contest goes on.
The campaign takes its first day off tomorrow and heads to Florida’s Gulf Coast on Monday for an event in the Tampa area.
Gingrich, at a town hall meeting in Orangeburg in the South Carolina’s midlands yesterday afternoon, amplified his appeal to conservatives to rally around him to stop Romney.
“The only effective conservative vote to stop a Massachusetts moderate is to vote for me,’’ he told a crowd of several hundred here. “That’s what all the polls are showing.’’
In one of the nation’s most conservative states, Gingrich repeatedly served up big daily helpings of political red meat to a Republican base seething with anger and searching for a candidate who can beat President Obama in November.
South Carolina has been hit hard by the recession, and Gingrich’s blistering rhetoric and unwavering certitude plays well here. He often reminds South Carolinians that he is a “Georgia conservative.’’ The two states share a long border.
Gingrich received standing ovations at both televised debates in South Carolina this week, lashing out at the news media, a favorite target of conservatives and Gingrich. At many Gingrich events, supporters hold signs that say “Don’t believe the liberal media.’’
When Fox News panelist Juan Williams suggested in the state’s first debate that Gingrich was belittling poor people with his incessant attacks on food stamps and references to Obama as the “food stamp president,’’ Gingrich retorted that food stamps are being distributed at record levels and he will “continue to find ways to help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job, and learn some day to own the job.’’
When moderator John King of CNN opened Thursday night’s debate by asking about his second wife’s statement during an ABC interview that Gingrich had requested an “open marriage,’’ Gingrich went on the attack.
