NEWT GINGRICH WINS SOUTH CAROLINA AND AGAIN THE PALMETTO STATE SETS THE EXAMPLE - THE SUNDAY COMMENTARY

With 40% of the vote in the South Carolina primary Newt Gingrich has won the Palmetto State with Mitt Romney finishing a distant second at 27% and Rick Santorum third at 17%. A 13% margin of victory is considered a landslide for the former Speaker of the House and gives him the clear momentum going into the all important Florida Primary which takes place on January 31.

South Carolina, as has been the case in all previous Presidential elections since 1980 when Ronald Reagan won the first Palmetto State Primary, has selected the eventual Republican nominee as no candidate has won the nomination without first winning South Carolina.

The pundits, the media and the GOP establishment not only under estimated South Carolina voters in the lead up to the Primary vote, it was said the Palmetto State voters favored Romney because he was the only candidate with, "electability." Yet as the day progressed Palmetto State voters cited that Newt was our man because of his conservatism and the belief that he was the only candidate voters felt could beat Obama in the General Election.

South Carolina has now set the example for the remaining Primary States beginning with Florida in 10 days. We do not have to settle for the establishment moderate as the media and the pundits have said. We can elect a conservative and can elect him decisively as we have proven with the Gingrich landslide. A conservative can win and must win in order to beat Obama.

We cannot just settle for a moderate candidate like Romney who differs little from Obama as his record shows. It will take a candidate who presents a polar opposite stand on the issues that are important to voters and the future of our country. We cannot give Obama the ability in a debate or through his campaign stops or advertising to be able to make any claim that the Republican candidate has agreement with him preventing his opportunity to say why change when there isn't much difference.

We also need a candidate that can stand strong against Obama in a debate setting not agreeing with him as McCain did so often in 2008 and willing to state for the record that Obama is a failure and outline those failures in detail and how they have hurt our economy, our standing in the world and driven unemployment to the highest it has been in decades.

Newt Gingrich offers all of the above. A conservative whose policies are polar opposite of Obama's. A strong ability to debate and show Obama to be the fool that he is. The ability, as he has shown in South Carolina to unite the GOP and bring Independents into the fold. Adding to the mix disgruntled Democrats who feel the extreme leftist policy of Obama has abandoned them.

Gingrich also offers on more thing that no other candidate can claim. He is literally the most vetted candidate in recent history if not ever. Gingrich because of those especially on the left he has angered in the past has no skeletons in his closet that Obama and the Dems can pull out of their hat in what has become known as the, "October Surprise," which has contributed to the demise of many candidates.

Gingrich is also honest about his strengths as well as his failures. He acknowledges all of his mistakes both politically and personally and has made an account to the American people on all levels which Obama cannot claim nor even suggest as even after three years in the Presidency there is still little known about his background and even less transparency in his administration.

To my fellow Americans and especially conservatives in all of the remaining Primary States, we in South Carolina have shown the way to prevent the establishment candidate from winning and taking a true conservative to victory for the nomination and against Barack Obama in the General Election in November. Newt is that man. He is the choice for the Republican nomination and the 2012 choice for President of the United States of America.

Ken Taylor