Florida Primary 2012: Live Updates From The Sunshine State

Newt Gingrich upped his attacks on Mitt Romney's authenticity Sunday morning on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"You end up with a guy who is a very good salesman, who very much wants to sell, but has a very weak product," Gingrich said. "I think he's been dancing on eggs, trying ... to find a version of Romney that would work."

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-- Luke Johnson

Following a third-place finish in South Carolina, Rick Santorum denied that he felt any pressure to leave the race to allow GOP voters to coalesce around Newt Gingrich.

"Absolutely no pressure at all," he said on CNN. "I think people realize that Mitt Romney is now no longer the inevitable."

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-- Luke Johnson

Here is one indication as to how Saturday night's win by Newt Gingrich in South Carolina has changed the calculus for the Romney campaign.

Romney stated during CNN's debate on Thursday night:

This is not the time to be doubting people's words, or questioning their integrity.

Mike Allen of Politico's Playbook quoted a "top Romney source" on Sunday morning:

We are moving to insider vs. outsider. To pol/lobbyist vs. businessman. And character is going to be an issue, not a subtext.

The Romney campaign never actually thought that matters of integrity or character were off-limits -- certainly not as they pertained to Gingrich. But it also wasn't jumping to advertise that they would be part of its strategy prior to this past week's developments.

Following a third-place finish in South Carolina, Rick Santorum attacked Newt Gingrich on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday. He called Gingrich a "high-risk candidate," citing his past positions on immigration, global warming and health care.

He also seemed to marginalize Ron Paul -- who finished fourth last night -- as a candidate, saying twice that there were "three serious candidates" left and that it was a "three-person race."

-- Luke Johnson

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney will release his tax returns for 2010 and an estimate for 2011 on Tuesday. Rival contender Newt Gingrich called the news "a very good thing" and said, "I commend him for it."

HuffPost's Sam Stein reports:

Florida is a complicated state for any one candidate to traverse. And in the wake of Saturday night's results, it appeared each was going to try his hand.

There is the traditionally southern political culture up north and the more northern-like political culture down south. There are cities and suburbs, the business communities, the computer technology community, and the space industry communities. There are numerous media markets and the influential I-4 corridor. And while it will be a closed primary, meaning only registered Republicans can vote in it, there is a wide swath of minorities who will be involved.

Whereas in South Carolina, the Jewish vote accounted for zero percent of Republican primary voters, according to exit poll data, that number will be considerably higher in Florida. And while the issue of immigration was cited by just three percent of South Carolinians as the one they viewed as most important, Floridians will view the matter differently. The Florida primary will be the first to take place in a state with a significant percentage of Hispanic voters.

The vote will occur a week from Tuesday, but the fireworks should start immediately. On Monday night all four candidates are confirmed to appear at a debate sponsored by NBC, National Journal and the Tampa Bay Times.

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HuffPost's Jon Ward reports:

Newt Gingrich, whose candidacy was left for dead in June and then again earlier this month, scored a stunning victory over Mitt Romney here that has reshaped the Republican presidential primary and called into question Romney's ability to win the nomination.

As soon as the polls closed in South Carolina at 7 p.m., the major TV networks called the race for Gingrich. With 100 percent of the vote counted, Gingrich was at 40.4 percent to Romney's 27.9 percent, with former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) at 17 percent and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) at 13 percent, the Associated Press reported.

"Thank you South Carolina! Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida," Gingrich tweeted soon after the race was called, directing people to where they could give money to his campaign.

Later Gingrich used his 23-minute victory speech to build on the themes that drove his popularity through the roof in this Southern state: deep resentment among conservatives of the influence of liberals in the press and other cultural institutions.

"The American people feel that they have elites who have been trying for a half century to force us to quit being American," Gingrich said.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/22/florida-primary-2012-live_n_1221650.html

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