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January 22, 2012 | | UH-OH Gingrich is back. Undaunted by a fourth-place finish in New Hampshire, the former speaker rode to a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday night, taking 40 percent of the vote over Mitt Romney’s 28 percent. Now it’s on to Florida—which goes to the polls on Jan. 31—and where Gingrich will be working overtime to compete with Romney’s organizational head start. The Daily Beast’s Paul Begala on the wave of panic gripping the Republican establishment in the wake of Gingrich’s upset victory over their chosen candidate—and the frenzied effort they’ll make to be sure it doesn’t happen in Florida. Plus, Howard Kurtz, Michelle Cottle, and more Daily Beast contributors weigh in on the results. MESS It’s far from over yet, so the jumbled Republican presidential race now shifts to Florida after South Carolina failed to decide the nominee. The candidates have 10 days before Florida’s Jan. 31 primary to see if Mitt Romney’s inevitability was indeed shaken by Newt Gingrich’s 12 percent win in South Carolina, a remarkable comeback for the former speaker after seeing his campaign nearly ruined twice. But Florida is a much larger and diverse state, and Gingrich wasted no time in his victory speech going after the wealthy Romney, who has already built up an organizational advantage there. “We don’t have the kind of money at least one of the candidates has,” Gingrich railed. Romney was not flustered: “I will compete in every single state,” he vowed. CRISIS The death toll in Kano, Nigeria, has jumped to at least 178, according to hospital officials Sunday, after bomb blasts and gunmen from the radical Islamist sect Boko Haram wreaked havoc in the city now on the brink. Nine more people were killed and 12 others were wounded early Sunday when more bombs exploded in the northern city in the latest round of religious violence. TROUBLED WATERS Italian officials have identified eight of the 12 victims of the Costa Concordia disaster. Four of the dead were French, one was Italian, one Hungarian, one Spanish, and one German. There are no Americans on the list, but there are more than 20 people still missing. Hope of finding any more survivors inside the wreckage is fading, although crews resumed rescue efforts Sunday after halting them again overnight. The sunken ship is moving frequently and in danger of tipping into deeper waters off the coast of the Italian island of Giglio. It’s been more than a week since the ship ran aground. ERROR The managing editor of the online Penn State student news service Onward State has resigned after erroneously reporting Saturday night that former football coach Joe Paterno had died. The item was picked up by CBSSports.com and other news sites, including, briefly, The Daily Beast. “I never, in a million years, would have thought that Onward State might be cited by the national media,” Devon Edwards’s letter said. “Today, I sincerely wish it never had been.” Edwards did not explain how the error occurred. Paterno is in serious condition in a hospital after being diagnosed with lung cancer, and his son Jay tweeted Saturday night that his father was still “fighting.” | | 
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