South Carolina Debate: Republican Candidates Face Off (LIVE UPDATES)

HuffPost's Howard Fineman reports:

South Carolina is the home of anti-federal sentiment going back to the 1820s, and the birthplace of the modern, Southern-based GOP thanks to figures like Strom Thurmond, Roger Milliken and Lee Atwater.

The state is to modern Republicanism what Mecca is to Islam: a holy place of its founding history, feuds, orthodoxy and authority.

Before 1980, South Carolina had selected its delegates by convention, a suitably elitist and tightly-controlled situation for local Republicans. But seeking an early boost in what had become a Southern-based party, Reagan operatives and loyalists engineered the switch to a primary system. Reagan won in 1980 and was on his way to the White House.

A win now by Romney -- a Yankee, a relative moderate, an Ivy Leaguer and a Mormon -- would be the ratification he desperately needs from voters who, so far, still regard him with mere tolerance at best and deep antagonism and suspicion at worst.

To be sure, Romney can still slog on to the nomination if he loses South Carolina. The Florida primary, ten days later, is a mega-state event in which only he and Ron Paul have the in-house resources to compete.

But losing the Palmetto State, given its history and what is likely to be a big turnout, would reinforce a narrative Romney can ill-afford: that he's a likely nominee by default, resented and unloved.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/16/south-carolina-debate-republican-debate_n_1192124.html

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