Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney | featured news

Mitt Romney’s stunning loss in South Carolina was as broad-based as his win in the previous primary in New Hampshire, according to exit polls, raising new questions about his ability to reach a wide assortment of voters.

Newt Gingrich has stormed to an upset victory over Mitt Romney in the South Carolina GOP primary with a pair of strong debate performances that most voters said was important to their choice.

As South Carolina Republicans begin voting in the first primary of the south today, GOP insiders say that all the candidates have had their problems in Palmetto State, one reason why today's outcome has been so hard to predict.

With the crucial Republican presidential primary in South Carolina just hours away, front-runner Mitt Romney on Friday lowered expectations for how well he will do and acknowledged he is in a neck-and-neck race with Newt Gingrich.

He blasts the moderator for asking a question about an ex-wife and then trades sharp jabs with Rick Santorum and front-runner Mitt Romney. With time ebbing to catch front-runner Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidates brawled Thursday night in a debate that drew angry denunciations of the media from Newt Gingrich and spurred heated disagreements between Gingrich and fellow challenger Rick Santorum.

On a separate issue, Gingrich told reporters that he paid 31 percent of his 2010 income in taxes, more than double the 15 percent Romney said he pays. A Gingrich spokesman said the 31 percent was the effective federal rate on his income. Gingrich declined to criticize Romney on the tax issue, saying instead that it made the case for his own proposal to put in place an optional 15 percent flat income tax. "My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney's taxes, but to let everyone pay Romney's rate," he said.

Newt Gingrich said Mitt Romney raised taxes as Massachusetts governor. Romney countered he cut taxes 19 times. Both were basically right, but decidedly one-sided, in the Republican presidential debate Monday night.

Mitt Romney came under renewed assault Monday night for his business record and tactics, but in a turnabout, his rivals found themselves forced to defend their criticism and the increasingly harsh tone of the Republican presidential race.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has opened a wide lead over his rivals in the South Carolina primary election race, trouncing Newt Gingrich and gaining momentum in his march toward the party's nomination, a Reuters/Ipsos poll shows.

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Friday called on a well-heeled outside group supporting his candidacy to correct the inaccuracies in a half-hour film highly critical of GOP front-runner Mitt Romney's career as a venture capitalist or "pull it off the air and off the internet entirely."