PPP S.C. Poll: Romney 29, Gingrich 24, Paul 15, Santorum 14

- (Weekly Standard) - 4 months ago...

A new poll of South Carolina primary voters, the latest from PPP, shows Mitt Romney with a lead over Newt Gingrich, 29 percent to 24 percent. Ron Paul just edges out Rick Santorum for third place there, with 15 percent and 14 percent support, respectively. This poll shows Romney a point down and Gingrich a point up from PPP's last poll of South Carolina, prior to the New Hampshire primary. The big swings, however, appear to be for Paul and Santorum. Paul is up 6 points, from 9 percent in the previous poll, while Santorum is down 5 points, from 19 percent. This shows, at the very least, that Santorum is having difficulty maintaining his post-Iowa caucus boost in South Carolina. Paul's second place finish in New Hampshire could be translating into better numbers in South Carolina, too. But the PPP poll, like other recent polls of the state's GOP voters, also reveals that South Carolina is increasingly looking like a two-candidate battle between Romney and Gingrich. Despite disappointing performances in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Gingrich might still be in the hunt. (An interesting side note from the poll: 76 percent of primary voters have a favorable opinion of Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow. Too bad for the candidates that America's favorite athlete won't be endorsing any of them--though not for lack of trying.)...