- You’ve got to be able to walk into a gas station, a restaurant, or a bar and be able to shake hands and communicate. It’s street level politics, if you will. He’s just very polished. He’s an individual that’s successful, but at the same time, I don’t know how much he wants to sit around and hang out.
- South Carolina State Rep. Nathan Ballentine • Speaking about Mitt Romney’s electoral prospects in the Palmetto State, a matter now looking more imminent with Romney’s newly formed presidential exploratory committee. Romney got trounced in South Carolina last time around, finishing in fourth behind John McCain, Mike Huckabee, and “lazy like a fox” Fred Thompson. If his campaign chooses to cede South Carolina, and invests their resources elsewhere, they may be playing with fire; no Republican has lost the South Carolina primary and won the nomination since the first one, back n 1980. source