Last night the four remaining GOP hopefuls took to a stage in Charleston, South Carolina for the CNN debate before the South Carolina Republican presidential primary is to take place. Rick Santorum, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Ron Paul are the four remaining contenders after Rick Perry announced his decision to discontinue in his campaigning for the Republican Presidential nominee. So how did the night end up going? Let’s take a look back.
After all four of the men entered the stage for the last debate before Saturday’s South Carolina Republican primary voting, the CNN and Southern Republican Leadership Conference hosted debate started out withe the playing of the national anthem. The four men, Rick Santorum–former U.S. Senator, Mitt Romney–former Massachusetts Governor, Newt Gingrich–former Speaker of the House, and Ron Paul–U.S. Representative stood with their hands placed over their hearts as the song played. Of course after the song ended, the questions started coming.
One question addressed to all four of the candidates asked them how they would have run their campaigns knowing what they now know, or if they had any campaign regrets. Of course they do, right?
Rick Santorum did not have any regrets, nor did he have anything that he would have changed if he could. His reason was that he did something that he did not foresee happening, standing in the final four.
“Someone who had no money, who lost his last race, who everyone basically ignored as I travelled around South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire, and just talked to people–700 town hall meetings,” he said. ”And it proved that good ideas and hard work still pay off in America.”
Ron Paul, who has been known to confuse people here and there said that he wished he would have better articulated his ideas and points.
Mitt Romney wanted more votes in Iowa saying, “I’d have worked to get 25 more votes in Iowa, that’s for sure.” The only problem with that statement is that even with those 25 more votes he still would not have beat out Santorum who won by 34 votes. Therefore, Romney would have required at least 35 more votes.
Newt Gingrich looked back on his campaign and decided that if he could have, he would have changed the first three months of how he did things. According to him, he tried to hard to be a traditional candidate which did not speak to the reality of the type of candidate he really is.
