Striving to regain ground in the final hours before the South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney offered a dim assessment of his chances in the race as he sparred with a surging Newt Gingrich .
Traveling the state in the final full day of campaigning before today’s voting, the former Massachusetts governor sought to downplay expectations, describing the race as a “neck-and- neck” competition.
“I said from the very beginning South Carolina is an uphill battle for a guy from Massachusetts,” he told reporters yesterday in Gilbert, South Carolina. “We’re battling hard.”
Gingrich, seeking to ride what polls show is a late wave of support, planned a full day of campaign stops in a bid to top Mitt Romney .
“The only effective conservative vote to stop a Massachusetts moderate is to vote for me,” Gingrich told an overflow crowd of more than 500 voters yesterday at The Cinema Room in Orangeburg. “If I win tomorrow, I will go on to become the nominee.
Voters, pundits and others offered other theories about his problems dealing the issue of his finances.
Like Gingrich, some questioned whether Romney has something to hide.
Perhaps the most intriguing theory came from Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, co-authors of a new book on Romney called "The Real Romney."
During an interview on CNN, Kranish said a Romney family member told the authors that Romney's cautious manner while campaigning -- which can make him seem distant and stiff -- partly reflects a lesson he learned from his father.
George Romney was a chairman of American Motors and a Michigan governor. As a presidential candidate in 1968, he supported the Vietnam War but became an opponent of it after visiting Vietnam with several congressmen.
George Romney later said during a TV interview that his earlier position was the product of "brainwashing" by generals and others who backed the war.
The comment sunk his bid for the Republican nomination, which was won by Richard Nixon.
"That one sentence pretty much exploded his presidential ambitions," Kranish said. "And Mitt Romney has taken a lesson from that. ... As a result, Mitt is more careful, more scripted in what he says because one sentence could perhaps end (his) campaign as it did his father's."
Kranish added that within his circle of trusted advisers, Romney is "very warm."
With the general public, however, "it could be a hard connection to make, especially given his great wealth ... and trying to make that connection to the average person."
Kranish added that Romney could use more of the "free-flowing nature that his father had."
Traveling the state in the final full day of campaigning before today’s voting, the former Massachusetts governor sought to downplay expectations, describing the race as a “neck-and- neck” competition.
“I said from the very beginning South Carolina is an uphill battle for a guy from Massachusetts,” he told reporters yesterday in Gilbert, South Carolina. “We’re battling hard.”
Gingrich, seeking to ride what polls show is a late wave of support, planned a full day of campaign stops in a bid to top Mitt Romney .
“The only effective conservative vote to stop a Massachusetts moderate is to vote for me,” Gingrich told an overflow crowd of more than 500 voters yesterday at The Cinema Room in Orangeburg. “If I win tomorrow, I will go on to become the nominee.
Voters, pundits and others offered other theories about his problems dealing the issue of his finances.
Like Gingrich, some questioned whether Romney has something to hide.
Perhaps the most intriguing theory came from Michael Kranish and Scott Helman, co-authors of a new book on Romney called "The Real Romney."
During an interview on CNN, Kranish said a Romney family member told the authors that Romney's cautious manner while campaigning -- which can make him seem distant and stiff -- partly reflects a lesson he learned from his father.
George Romney was a chairman of American Motors and a Michigan governor. As a presidential candidate in 1968, he supported the Vietnam War but became an opponent of it after visiting Vietnam with several congressmen.
George Romney later said during a TV interview that his earlier position was the product of "brainwashing" by generals and others who backed the war.
The comment sunk his bid for the Republican nomination, which was won by Richard Nixon.
"That one sentence pretty much exploded his presidential ambitions," Kranish said. "And Mitt Romney has taken a lesson from that. ... As a result, Mitt is more careful, more scripted in what he says because one sentence could perhaps end (his) campaign as it did his father's."
Kranish added that within his circle of trusted advisers, Romney is "very warm."
With the general public, however, "it could be a hard connection to make, especially given his great wealth ... and trying to make that connection to the average person."
Kranish added that Romney could use more of the "free-flowing nature that his father had."
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