Since the GOP presidential campaign began last year, Mitt Romney has always been considered the front-runner to take the nomination, and though there have been some bumps and bruises along the way, he was never seriously challenged — until Newt Gingrich stunned him in South Carolina 10 days ago.
That's when Team Romney decided that their candidate had to drop the Mr. Nice Guy act, and after savaging Gingrich daily on the campaign trail in the last week, and more importantly, outspending him by a nearly 5-1 margin in television and radio ads (nearly all negative), the GOP world righted itself on Tuesday night, with Romney trouncing Gingrich by a 46-32 percent margin. Rick Santorum received 13 percent of the vote, and Ron Paul took 7 percent.
Noting that huge discrepancy in terms of negative ads, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a press release that "Tonight, Romney was successful in buying his way to victory — but with every passing Republican contest, he becomes weaker with key general election swing and independent voters should he make it that far."
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2012.