BLOOMBERG: Striving to regain ground in the final hours before the South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney offered a dim assessment of his chances in the race as he sparred with a surging Newt Gingrich.
Traveling the state in the final full day of campaigning before today’s voting, the former Massachusetts governor sought to downplay expectations, describing the race as a “neck-and- neck” competition.
“I said from the very beginning South Carolina is an uphill battle for a guy from Massachusetts,” he told reporters yesterday in Gilbert, South Carolina. “We’re battling hard.”
Gingrich, seeking to ride what polls show is a late wave of support, planned a full day of campaign stops in a bid to top Romney.
“The only effective conservative vote to stop a Massachusetts moderate is to vote for me,” Gingrich told an overflow crowd of more than 500 voters yesterday at The Cinema Room in Orangeburg. “If I win tomorrow, I will go on to become the nominee.” » | Lisa Lerer and Julie Hirschfeld Davis | Saturday, January 21, 2012
