GOP hopefuls hit ground running in S.C. ahead of primary

COLUMBIA -- The six Republican presidential candidates' messages, locations, theatrics and crowd sizes varied, but a common theme emerged: All of them talked about reviving the economy and replacing President Barack Obama in November.

They spent much of Wednesday holding rallies across South Carolina in hopes that their campaigns will not just survive but thrive after this state's Jan. 21 primary.

While former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney remains the favorite, particularly after finishing first in Iowa and New Hampshire, there's no guarantee that South Carolina Republicans will follow that pattern.

Romney began his South Carolina swing by sounding similar themes to those he gave in his New Hampshire victory speech Tuesday night.

"The president said he wants to transform America. I don't want to transform America. I want to restore America," he said, one of several lines that drew applause from the several hundred supporters packed in a downtown Columbia warehouse.

Gov. Nikki Haley introduced Romney and talked almost as long as he did about the need to make a change in the White House. She said Romney vowed to help South Carolina get its money back if the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste storage facility in Nevada doesn't open.

With Romney, she said, "I will have a partner in the White House. I won't have someone fighting me every step of the way."

Romney said he understands South Carolinians are hurting, especially with the state's unemployment rate near 10 percent. He vowed to reinvigorate the economy by reducing taxes, reducing regulations and promoting cheaper, home-grown energy sources.

He noted the average income of Americans is 50 percent higher than that of Europeans. "What makes us different are the principles this nation was founded on," he said.

James Benson of Blythewood said he supported Romney four years ago and still had his old campaign signs in his barn. He said Romney is his choice because of his business background, ethics and track record as governor and as head of the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.

Dianne Bush of Columbia also said she made up her mind for Romney about 10 days ago, largely because of his tough stand on immigration. "When you have 10 percent unemployment in this state, we need to think about limiting not only illegal immigrants but legal immigrants," she said.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul greeted several hundred enthusiastic supporters in a West Columbia aircraft hangar and cited his second-place showing in New Hampshire Tuesday night as proof that his campaign is taking off.

"I think we sent out a pretty positive message last night in New Hampshire," he said. "Now South Carolina is next on the list."

Paul stressed two issues -- how the United States must stop intervening militarily in overseas conflicts and how the Federal Reserve system needs to come to an end.

"We have to change what is happening," he said. "We're going after the status quo and the people in charge. We're coming, and we're going to deliver this message. It's a message of peace and prosperity."

The crowd, whose average age appeared younger than at most GOP campaign events, traveled from all over the state, from Anderson and Charleston and points in between. A few carried homemade signs with Paul's quotes, such as "Truth is treason in the empire of lies," and they greeted him with a chant of "Ron! Ron! Ron!"

Paul said his campaign is about liberty and reversing at least a century of actions that have eroded the U.S. Constitution.

He said the federal monetary system should be audited and reformed and predicted some will push for an international paper currency controlled by the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund.

"We're on the move and it isn't only because we have a candidate but we have an issue," Paul said. "We have a set of principles that we're going to defend, and this is what motivates people."

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, made clear that he's not giving up without a fight, despite mounting pressure from some GOP power brokers to coalesce behind Romney and avoid a nasty primary fight that could bolster Obama.

In Rock Hill, Gingrich said the party establishment doesn't want to confront the hard questions.

"Don't talk about who got all the money. ... Can't we just move forward letting the rich keep all the money?" Gingrich said, arguing that "crony capitalism" undermines free enterprise.

"I want you to know that I am running precisely because, as an Army brat from a middle-class family who taught in college, I think middle-class, taxpaying, working families deserve a government that is honest," he said.

That's putting Gingrich on what could be a kamikaze mission designed, he said, to rescue the GOP from selling out to the moderate, establishment wing.

As a pro-Gingrich political action committee took the wraps off a 28-minute Web video eviscerating Romney's leadership of Bain Capital, Gingrich launched a full-throated assault on "crony capitalism" and establishment politics.

By midday, he appeared to be having second thoughts when he was confronted by a Republican voter.

"I think you've missed the target on the way you're addressing Romney's weaknesses," said a man at a town hall in Spartanburg. "I want to beg you to redirect and go after his obvious disingenuousness about his conservatism and lay off the corporatist versus the free market."

"I agree with you," Gingrich replied. "It's an impossible theme to talk about with Obama in the background. Obama just makes it impossible to talk rationally in that area because he is so deeply into class warfare that automatically you get an echo effect."

The "crony capitalism" remark was not repeated at his final campaign stop at the Beacon Restaurant in Spartanburg.

Gingrich said he thinks South Carolina will winnow down the choices to Romney and a conservative alternative.

"I believe that South Carolinians are either going to center in and pick one conservative or, by default, you're going to send a moderate on to the nomination," he said.

While his rivals stumped in voter-rich cities like Columbia and Spartanburg, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum kicked off his South Carolina campaign swing with his second visit to Ridgeway. He offered a message tailored for small towns.

"We'll make South Carolina the manufacturing mecca of the country," he said, adding when this sector rebounds, "manufacturers are not going to locate in the suburbs or in downtown New York or Philadelphia."

Santorum spoke to about 100 voters and media members at YesterYears restaurant, whose motto is "The Heart of Ridgeway." Many wore "Santorum" stickers.

He talked about a four-point plan to lower corporate taxes, provide tax breaks for investing in new manufacturing plants in the United States, lessening federal regulations and providing cheaper energy.

Santorum didn't refer to his GOP rivals but blasted Obama repeatedly, including his energy policy. "They have a war on coal. They have a war on oil," Santorum said. "They have a war on anything that burns in this country."

Santorum also vowed to fight the federal debt by tackling entitlements, even if that proves politically unpopular. "I'm worried about losing my country, not about losing the election," he said.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry made the rounds, shaking hands at lunchtime in the backroom of Doc's Barbecue in Columbia, in the city's industrial east side. It didn't take long for him to thank members of the military in attendance. He also quickly jumped into the story of

William B. Travis and James Butler Bonham, South Carolinians who went to the Alamo, thus making his home state of Texas possible.

"They went to fight for freedom, they made a big difference," he said. Perry continued to paint himself as the outsider to the 40 or so voters on hand.

"The idea that we're going to trade one Washington insider with another Washington insider and think we're going to get a different result, we know that's not going to be the case," he said.

Supporters say Perry, who trails in South Carolina polling, is making a huge commitment to his continued viability by staking out South Carolina.

"He's here to stay until the primary," said supporter and former South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson. "He's traveling all over the state," including stops today in Summerville and Walterboro.

During the question-and-answer session with the crowd, the first few questions covered religious issues and Perry's spirituality and defense of religion. He called the Bible "a great instructive."

"That book is what I look to for a host of issues," he said. "There's great wisdom in that book."

He also billed himself as the Obama alternative. "Ask yourself this question: Am I better off today than I was 4 trillion dollars ago?" he said to applause. Jon Huntsman

Former Utah Gov. and former China ambassador Jon Huntsman kept his campaign alive with a third-place finish in New Hampshire on Tuesday. A day later he spoke to a room crammed with supporters and backpack-lugging students at the University of South Carolina's Moore School of Business.

He stuck to a theme of securing America's competitive edge on a global scale, saying the solution starts with reforming Washington in terms of its finances and ethics.

As a nation, we are headed to a point "where we're so mired in debt that you can't grow, you can't compete," he said. "If we don't get our act together at home, we will see the end of the American century by 2050."

He went on to lambast a government controlled by lawyers, lobbyists and bankers, calling bailouts counter-productive to what the nation is all about. "I say if you are too big to fail, you are too big," he said, "because capitalism without failure is not capitalism."

Huntsman supporter, former state Attorney General Henry McMaster, said he's backing the candidate with the best message but admitted Huntsman's lack of campaign cash might hurt him in a state as rough and tumble as South Carolina.

Huntsman has "a great message and is clearly and unequivocally qualified," McMaster said. "But we've got a lot of candidates with huge bankrolls, so it's hard to get heard."

Even if Huntsman's college-aged audience liked the message, it might not pay off for him. A few students admitted they weren't registered to vote and attended to get class credit.

In the evening, a crowd of more than 100 heard Huntsman speak at North Charleston City Hall.

He drew loud applause when he said America should have long ago declared victory in Iraq and Afghanistan and removed most troops, and should not have undertaken "nation-building" in those countries.

Edward C. Fennell and The Associated Press contributed to this report.