Mitt Romney in South Carolina

Under the old political rules, Mitt Romney arrived in South Carolina this week the prohibitive Republican front-runner: flush with cash, awash in endorsements from a party establishment starting to coalesce behind him and buoyed by victories in Iowa and New Hampshire.


But as Mr. Romney is quickly learning, those rules no longer apply.


Mr. Romney’s carefully tended network of Republican donors has been rendered functionally less important by “super PACs,” through which a handful of wealthy individuals are financing a multimillion-dollar advertising barrage to assail his record and prop up his opponents.


And Mr. Romney’s victories in Iowa and New Hampshire have netted him just a handful of the delegates he needs to become the nominee, thanks to the party’s decision last year to lengthen the nominating process by shifting more winner-take-all contests to the end of the primary season.


As a result, Mr. Romney’s remaining opponents have little incentive to drop out, knowing that their support from super PACs and Internet contributions from grass-roots supporters can keep them in the race long after they would have remained viable in earlier eras, potentially draining money and delegates away from Mr. Romney even as he lurches toward the nomination.


Since the contests began, only one candidate, Representative Michele Bachmann, has pulled out, while two others, Newt Gingrich and Gov. Rick Perry, have failed to break into the top three in Iowa or New Hampshire.


Hal Stevenson, a mover in the Palmetto Family Council and Columbia-area billboard executive, is committed to Santorum but he thinks Romney “is probably going to win unless something striking happens.”
Why?
“They think he’s the guy who can beat Obama,” explained Stevenson of his friends who are now drifting to Romney. “That’s what I hear.”
One difference between Iowa and South Carolina will also be that Santorum made it through the caucuses without facing a single negative TV ad.
Beginning Friday, sources tell POLITICO, he’s going to be on the receiving end of a new ad from Romney’s SuperPAC hitting him for supporting earmarks and raising the country’s debt limit.
Santorum is already playing defense on this front. At a rally in Hilton Head Thursday, he lashed out against McCain for the Arizona senator’s criticism of him for supporting earmarks.
“Certainly Strom Thurmond did a whole lot of them as the senator from South Carolina,” Santorum noted of the late Palmetto State icon.
Later in the day, in Beaufort, Santorum returned to the topic.
“I’m not a libertarian,” he said. “I’m a Reagan conservative. I believe in limited government, not no government.”
Santorum had been responding to Pete Godbey, a retiree and elder in a Disciples of Christ church who had asked the candidate what voters may find out in the course of the media scrutinizing his background.
Godbey said after the event that social conservatives are splintered, but that many agree they want to stop the “anointed” Romney. He’s not sure Santorum will be able to win outright on Jan. 21.
“My personal hope is he can finish two or three,” said Godbey. “Then he could go to Florida.”
But other South Carolina Republicans believe that Florida won’t matter should Romney win.
“Game over,” said Scott, about the implications of a Romney victory in his state. “No question. It’s done.