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Can Romney get the GOP nomination without winning South Carolina? Inside his mysterious campaign in the Palmetto State
The most telling sign of the uphill battle Romney faces in South Carolina is the skepticism he faces among many leading Republicans who backed his bid four years ago. At this point in the 2008 campaign, Romney had announced more than 100 endorsements among key public officials, political operatives and fundraisers in the state. By comparison, he has announced fewer than 10 endorsements in the state, including Haley’s, this year. And many of his key staffers from 2008 remain neutral.
“I made a personal decision to keep my powder dry,” Warren Tompkins, an influential Republican strategist in the state who worked for Romney in 2008, told Yahoo News. “I wanted to see how the candidates ran their campaigns and what their commitment would be to South Carolina before making a decision. I’m under a pretty good bit of pressure right now. … But I’m going to wait until after the dust settles in Iowa to make my decision.”
So THIS is why I was hanging around South Carolina last weekend.