The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Deadline Hell in South Carolina

Posted on | January 20, 2012 | 11 Comments

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley spins for Mitt Romney
after the CNN debate, Jan. 19, 2012

CHARLESTON, S.C.
Last night was one of those deadline nightmares that occasionally occurs when I’m exhausted, trying to make sense of a complex situation with a brain numbed by fatigue. I only got about four hours sleep after my 479-mile round-trip journey upstate Wednesday, and news was breaking fast Thursday, when I spent the afternoon down at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference, which is strung out at multiple sites over a four-block space in downtown Charleston.

By the time I left the North Charleston Convention Center last night about 11, I’d written the first 200 words of my column, then returned to the Marriott on Meeting Street, media headquarters for the SRLC, intending to finish up quickly. But Bryan Preston of PJ Media was here and we got to talking and by the time I filed the column it was 2 a.m. By the time I got back to the hotel where I’m staying with Ali Akbar of NotMittRomney.com, it was almost 3.

So I slept until nearly 10 a.m. today and then chewed up a bunch of time trying to upload video, which was thwarted by an uncooperative hotel WiFi system and by the time I finally gave up on that, it was time for us to come back downtown for Ali to moderate a panel discussion about vote fraud. Then we went to eat at a barbecue place on King Street — my 13-year-old son pronounced it the best food he’d ever eaten in his life — and I got back to the Marriott about 4 p.m.

All of this, you see, to explain the paucity of blogging this Friday, which is the one day of the week when I don’t have a deadline for the Spectator.

Last night after the debate, I was nearly crushed in a media scrum surrounding Rick Santorum, the only one of the candidates who appeared in the “spin room” at the convention center:


Reporters were wedged into such a tight circle around the candidate — TV camera crews and photographers were packing in three-deep — that it probably would have been illegal in South Carolina before the Supreme Court ruled state sodomy laws unconstitutional. But I got the quote I needed for the lead of my American Spectator column:

The race for the Republican presidential nomination has finally come down the Final Four, and the swift reduction of the field helped make Thursday night’s debate here arguably the most entertaining of the 17 televised debates during this long campaign.
Yet the debate was in some sense anti-climactic, coming as it did on the heels of so much drama elsewhere on the South Carolina campaign trail. “The last 24 hours, I think, will go down in primary history as probably one of the most tumultuous 24 hours that we’ve seen,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said after the debate at the North Charleston Convention Center, televised on CNN.
Thursday’s biggest developments in the campaign preceded the debate by several hours. First, ABC News began releasing excerpts of its interview with Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife, who claimed that the former House Speaker had asked her to have an “open marriage.” Next, officials in Iowa reported that the final count from the Jan. 3 caucus showed that Santorum had beaten former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney there. Then, Texas Gov. Rick Perry called a press conference to announce that he was suspending his campaign and endorsing Gingrich.
Perry was the second candidate to drop out of the race this week, following Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s withdrawal Monday. This winnowing of the Republican field in South Carolina, strangely delayed after the usual proving grounds of Iowa and New Hampshire, produced a quartet of candidates — Romney, Gingrich, Santorum, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul — who mixed it up in a feisty battle that began with a volatile exchange between Gingrich and CNN moderator John King. . . .

Please read the whole thing.

UPDATE: And now the headlines via Memeorandum:

Fake CNN email used as dirty trick in South Carolina
— CNN

Clemson Palmetto Poll finds Gingrich leading,
20% of S.C. voters still uncommitted
— Clemson University

Romney’s ‘Prevent Defense’
Yielding Big Gains to Opponents
— New York Times

It looks like Newt will win here and — even though I’m for Santorum — that’s good news. Somebody had to beat Romney here to stop his momentum. Santorum beat Romney in Iowa and if Gingrich beats Romney in South Carolina, then all three candidates will be 1-for-3, and the campaign continues.

Category: Debates, Election, Fear and Loathing in South Carolina, South Carolina

Comments

11 Responses to “Deadline Hell in South Carolina”

  1. Quartermaster
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:46 pm

    You’d better be stockpiling sleep Stacy. You’re gonna need it.

  2. richard mcenroe
    January 20th, 2012 @ 7:57 pm

    We gotta freaking buy you a 4G modem, don’t we?

  3. Bob Belvedere
    January 20th, 2012 @ 8:11 pm

    How much [sigh]?

  4. Doing the Job the MSM Won’t Do | Daily Pundit
    January 20th, 2012 @ 9:16 pm

    […] the Job the MSM Won’t Do Posted on January 20, 2012 6:16 pm by Bill Quick Deadline Hell in South Carolina : The Other McCain It looks like Newt will win here and — even though I’m for Santorum — […]

  5. Adjoran
    January 20th, 2012 @ 10:48 pm

    I TOLD YOU about the food, remember? 

    Gingrich certainly has the momentum here, thanks to the last two debate performances.  It’s a real shame that so many conservatives are willing to race to the red meat like starving hyenas and forget 20 years of history.  Gingrich has screwed over everyone who ever trusted him.  No one escapes.  No one ever has.

    The man served with nearly 300 different Republicans in the House over the years.  How many have endorsed him?  If there were many, wouldn’t he have them on his website?  He doesn’t.

    I wonder why?  Is it because after the first few months of 1995 when he implemented the Contract with America well, he became unfocused, unreliable, erratic?  And everyone knows it?

  6. Anonymous
    January 20th, 2012 @ 11:16 pm

    Or maybe he knows where the bodies are buried… on both sides of the aisle.

    To quote HST on another candidate: “Nobody had reckoned he might have a bull-sized taste for revenge.”

  7. richard mcenroe
    January 20th, 2012 @ 11:46 pm

    I’m checking. depends on the coverage.  I’d like to find one that’s PAYGO .

  8. Five Year Blogging Anniversary: Ramos and Compean to Newt’s Ethics | Maggie's Notebook
    January 20th, 2012 @ 11:47 pm

    […] who have helped me along the way, like good friends The Lonely Conservative, Reaganite Republican, The Other McCain, Stop the ACLU, Political Realities,  Doug Ross, Larwyn’s Linx, Sultan Knish, […]

  9. Django McTunes
    January 21st, 2012 @ 12:19 am

    You can get a 3G service from Virgin Mobile (sprint network). They have a mobile broadband device. 3G has worked perfectly fine for mobile computing for me and is at least as functional as crappy hotel wifi.

  10. South Carolina Primary Day: Before My Saturday Afternoon Nap in Charleston : The Other McCain
    January 21st, 2012 @ 4:11 pm

    […] New MediaJan. 20: Will Folks: Now His Sacred Honor Compels Him to Gay-Bait … Me?Jan. 20: Deadline Hell in South CarolinaJan. 19: Some Things Never ChangeJan. 19: Is There a Real ‘Elizabeth Reichert’?Jan. 19: Perry […]

  11. Memo From the National Affairs Desk: Somewhere, There Is an Island … : The Other McCain
    January 22nd, 2012 @ 9:37 pm

    […] New MediaJan. 20: Will Folks: Now His Sacred Honor Compels Him to Gay-Bait … Me?Jan. 20: Deadline Hell in South CarolinaJan. 19: Some Things Never ChangeJan. 19: Is There a Real ‘Elizabeth Reichert’?Jan. 19: Perry […]