SC Primary: Romney To Release Taxes [VIDEO]

The Republican presidential race has been freshly scrambled as attention shifts to Florida, which is next up in the primary schedule.

The three contests so far have had three different winners after Newt Gingrich’s big victory in South Carolina and Iowa’s Republican party declaring Rick Santorum the winner of the state’s caucuses.

Mitt Romney took New Hampshire, but the air of inevitability that surrounded his candidacy after that win is gone, at least for now.

Romney is acknowledging it’s not been the best of weeks for his campaign after yesterday’s loss to Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina primary. He tells Fox News it was a mistake not releasing his tax returns, so he’ll do it Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Gingrich is declaring that he is the only Republican candidate who has what it takes to defeat President Barack Obama. In TV interviews this morning, the former House speaker said his conservative views and confrontational style are what’s needed to fight Obama’s “billion-dollar war chest.”

Santorum tells CNN that he expects to do well in Florida’s Jan. 31 primary and says he’s under no pressure to quit the GOP presidential race. Santorum says the idea that conservatives need to rally around a single candidate to beat Mitt Romney is “objectively false,” noting his victory in Iowa and Newt Gingrich’s win in South Carolina.

GINGRICH RELISHES WIN IN SOUTH CAROLINA

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is relishing his upset victory in the South Carolina primary.

The win has dealt a sharp setback to former front-runner Mitt Romney and has elongated the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

Romney appeared unbowed after his defeat. He vowed to contest for every vote “in every state,” an acknowledgement that the race would likely be a long one.

Exit polls showed Gingrich led among voters who said their top priority was picking a candidate who could beat Obama — a group that had preferred Romney in earlier contests in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Rick Santorum, who finished third, vowed to continue his campaign. He urged supporters at a rally in Charleston to “Join the fight.”

Ron Paul, who came in last, also told his supporters to “Keep fighting.”

Gingrich says primary win a blow to elites

Newt Gingrich says his win in South Carolina came with the support of people who don’t believe they are represented by what he calls the “elites” in Washington and New York.

Gingrich says that’s why people reacted strongly this week to his criticism of the news media — including his response to a debate question about an ex-wife’s claim that he had asked for an “open marriage.”

Gingrich says it’s “humbling and sobering” to see how many people want to get their country “back on the right track.”

Gingrich offered no criticism of his Republican rivals, except to say he disagrees with them on some of the issues. As for President Barack Obama, he called him the “most effective food stamp president in history,” while Gingrich vowed to become the “best paycheck president.”

He said if he’s the nominee, he will challenge Obama to seven 3-hour debates. Gingrich said the campaign will pit his view of “American exceptionalism” against what he called the “radical” ideas of the extreme left.

Gingrich wins most delegates in South Carolina

Newt Gingrich won nearly all of the delegates in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary Saturday.

That narrows Mitt Romney’s lead in the race for delegates to the party’s national convention this summer.

Gingrich, the former House speaker, has won at least 23 delegates of the 25 delegates at stake. Gingrich and Romney were still battling for the final two delegates. These are the first delegates Gingrich has won in a primary or caucus.

In all, Gingrich has 25 delegates, including endorsements from Republican National Committee members who will automatically attend the convention. Romney has 33 delegates and Rick Santorum has 14.

The race for delegates is still in the early stages, providing plenty of opportunity for a candidate who gains momentum to seize the lead. It will take 1,144 delegates to win the GOP nomination.

Romney congratulates Gingrich, but says former speaker shouldn’t be nominee

Even as he congratulates Newt Gingrich on his victory in the South Carolina primary, Mitt Romney is telling supporters he’ll fight in every state and scrap for everey vote.

Romney also says Gingrich isn’t the one to lead the Republicans to victory in November.

He says Republicans can’t win with a candidate who has never run a business and has never run a state. Without singling out Gingrich by name, Romney again criticized Republican opponents who he said had joined Democrats in attacking the free enterprise system.

Gingrich had been among those raising questions about Romney’s tenure as head of a venture capital firm.

Romney devoted most of his other remarks to an attack on President Barack Obama, repeating his charge that Obama wants to “fundamentally transform” America, while Romney wants to restore it to its founding principles.

He promised to repeal Obama’s health care overhaul, balance the budget and reduce the size of government

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