One week ago, very few people gave Newt Gingrich a chance to win in South Carolina. On Saturday, Gingrich enjoyed a 12 point blowout victory over Mitt Romney.
One week ago, very few people gave Newt Gingrich a chance to win in Florida. The polls last week showed Romney by 15-24 points in the Sunshine State.
The polls at the start of last week in South Carolina had Romney ahead of Gingrich by double digits.
Could we be in for another Newt Gingrich upset in Florida over Romney?
"Amazing 24 hours," Gingrich tweeted on Sunday night, saying that he's raised over $1 million, with "1000s of volunteers & momentum going forward. "
The first polling clue about Florida had good news for Gingrich's campaign.
"2 more people picked Mitt than Newt out of about 600 people we polled," reported Public Policy Polling on Twitter, as they said the GOP race is "neck and neck" in Florida.
It is a reminder of just how important momentum can be in a race for the White House.
If there is one thing to takeaway from South Carolina, it might be that voters there decided to send the GOP Establishment a message - they don't think Mitt Romney can do the job.
Just like in South Carolina last week, there are two debates this week in Florida - Monday night in Tampa (NBC) and Thursday night in Jacksonville (CNN).
Most of you probably remember how well Gingrich did last week and how that seemed to dramatically shift the race.
We'll see if Gingrich can keep that momentum going or if Romney, Rick Santorum or Ron Paul can turn things a different way.
Look for Romney to attack Gingrich over ethics and leadership issues; Santorum might hit him along those lines as well.
"Romney better do a lot better in the debates," one Republican House member from Florida told me on Sunday night.
Even more interesting is that early voting is already underway in Florida; we'll see if that benefits Romney or Gingrich in coming days.
