"It's going to come down, as it always does, to South Carolina," Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, said Friday while on the stump with Romney in Conway, S.C. "If Mitt Romney wins here, he will be the next president of the United States."
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/06/gop-candidates-step-up-south-carolina-push-as-polls-tighten/
The Republican presidential candidates are keeping a close eye on South Carolina even as they prepare for the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, with new polls showing the leaderboard shifting in the Palmetto State contest
Three polls Friday showed Mitt Romney reclaiming the lead from Newt Gingrich in South Carolina following the former Massachusetts governor's narrow win Tuesday in Iowa. Rick Santorum and Gingrich are now battling for second in South Carolina –– whose election results historically have been the most accurate gauge for who becomes the Republican presidential nominee.
"It's going to come down, as it always does, to South Carolina," Sen. John McCain, the 2008 GOP nominee, said Friday while on the stump with Romney in Conway, S.C. "If Mitt Romney wins here, he will be the next president of the United States."
McCain predicted Romney would win in New Hampshire, hardly a radical forecast at this point. Most polls show Romney well ahead in the state, though the race there is tightening a bit.
Although all the GOP candidates are competing in New Hampshire, even before the Iowa caucus results came in they were plotting for how to make inroads in South Carolina and prevent Romney from going three for three.