Is Newt Staging Another Comeback ?

A lot of people were ready to go ahead and give Mitt Romney the Republican presidential nomination, in spite of the fact that only two fairly small states have had their say. He did better in Iowa than expected, and performed well in New Hampshire. In addition, he had a significant lead in South Carolina and Florida, and broke 30% in the some national polls for the first time. Things were beginning to look very good for Romney.

But that was a few days ago, and in this modern age things can change very fast. In the last few days a bevy of skeletons has come crashing out of Mitt's closet, and it's not a pretty sight. It has become widely known that not only is Mitt super-rich, but he got a lot of that money by his company, Bain Capital, buying up other companies and selling off their assets after laying off all the workers. While he was claiming to be a job-creator, it turns out he was actually a job-killer.

Then it got worse. Voters learned that Mitt, even though he makes millions of dollars a year, pays a smaller percentage in taxes than most middle class folks do (who actually have to work for their income) -- only about 15%. But that's only on the money he has in this country. It turns out he has millions tucked away in an off-shore account in the Cayman Islands (and who knows where else) that he doesn't have to pay any taxes on -- not even the 15%. It seems that Mitt is not only a member of the 1%, but is guilty of the same kind of things that make Americans so mad at Wall Street.

And it's starting to look like those revelations are having an effect on the South Carolina primary. There are five new South Carolina polls out, and all of them show Newt Gingrich is gaining ground. Two of them show Romney's lead has shrunk, and the other three show Gingrich is now in the lead. It's looking like the Palmetto State primary may be a lot more interesting than was previously thought. Here are those five polls:

POLITICO POLL
Mitt Romney...............37%
Newt Gingrich...............30%
Ron Paul...............11%
Rick Santorum...............10%
Rick Perry...............4%
Undecided...............8%

CNN/TIME/ORC POLL
Mitt Romney...............33%
Newt Gingrich...............23%
Rick Santorum...............16%
Ron Paul...............13%
Rick Perry...............6%
Other/undecided...............9%

AMERICAN RESEARCH GROUP POLL
Newt Gingrich...............33%
Mitt Romney...............32%
Ron Paul...............19%
Rick Santorum...............9%
Rick Perry...............4%
Undecided...............3%

INSIDER ADVANTAGE POLL
Newt Gingrich...............32%
Mitt Romney...............29%
Ron Paul...............15%
Rick Santorum...............11%
Rick Perry...............3%
Other/undecided...............10%

RASMUSSEN POLL
Newt Gingrich...............33%
Mitt Romney...............31%
Ron Paul...............15%
Rick Santorum...............11%
Rick Perry...............2%