It's Primary Day In The Palmetto State

Today the citizens of South Carolina, at least those in a political party, go to the polls to let their party leaders know who they prefer their presidential nominee is. It's no contest for Democrats, since President Obama is going to be their nominee. He doesn't even have any real opposition within the party. But it's a different matter for the Republicans, where Romney, Gingrich, Paul, and Santorum are involved in a cutthroat race for the nomination (and voters are still trying to figure out who this Roemer guy is).

A week ago it looked like the Republican race was virtually over. Romney had exceeded expectations in Iowa, won the New Hampshire primary big, and was leading in South Carolina while posting higher than ever national numbers. But that was before it became public knowledge that Romney was a job-killer, having bought up struggling companies, fired their employees and then sold off their assets to make millions for himself and his Wall Street buddies.

Then he tucked a lot of that money (millions) in off-shore accounts in the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes on it, and only paid a 15% tax rate on the money he kept in this country (a lower tax rate than most in the middle class pays). Then he refuses to release his tax returns until at least April (by which time he is hoping to have an insurmountable lead in the nomination race). That has many voters wondering what else he is trying to hide. He says he wants to wait to avoid giving Democrats a big present. That's just silly, since it would be even better for Democrats in April than right now (since it would be closer to the general election).

In the span of just a few days, Mitt Romney has become the poster boy for Wall Street greed -- and that's something the American public just can't stomach in this time of recession and joblessness. Even Republican voters know it was Wall Street greed that triggered the recession and threw millions out of work. The disapproval of Wall Street bankers is exceeded only by the current Congress.

For the last few days, the Romney campaign has been going in reverse. South Carolina voters seem to have decided they prefer a total ethical black hole (Gingrich) over the Wall Street greed-monger (Romney), and the polls are now showing that. Yesterday I posted five polls on South Carolina -- two showed the margin between Romney and Gingrich decreasing, and the other three showed Gingrich is now in the lead. Now two new polls are out which verify the recent Gingrich surge. Here are the new numbers:

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING
Newt Gingrich...............35%
Mitt Romney...............29%
Ron Paul...............15%
Rick Santorum...............15%

WE ASK AMERICA POLL
Newt Gingrich...............32%
Mitt Romney...............28%
Ron Paul...............13%
Rick Santorum...............9%
Others...............6%
Undecided...............14%