To ease that opposition, Scott is urging voters to take a broader look at Gingrich's experience. "You don't have to find the perfect candidate," he said, in an interview on CNN's "State of The Union." "What we need is someone who can beat President Obama."
Newspaper Endorsement
New Hampshire's Manchester Union Leader's Nov. 27 endorsement of Gingrich took a similar position. "We would rather back someone with whom we may sometimes disagree than one who tells us what he thinks we want to hear," the newspaper wrote.
In appearances across South Carolina, Gingrich said that his shortcomings don't mean that he isn't the best candidate to take on Obama.
"I don't claim to be the perfect candidate," he told WSC- FM radio on Nov. 28. "I just claim to be a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney, and a lot more electable than anybody else,"
Gingrich promised retirees in Bluffton, a few miles from Hilton Head, that his general election campaign would deliver a "crushing defeat" to Obama.
Still, the former speaker's background bothered some voters, who said his past advocacy work, two divorces and admissions of infidelity would make it difficult for him to win in 2012.
"My concern is that Gingrich has had a high negative image in many, many areas in the past," said Jim McGrath, of Sun City, South Carolina. "How is he going to overcome that with the independent voter?"