From the post–New Hampshire edition of the Morning Jolt:

It won’t change the minds of the Romney critics — Kathryn has been getting knocked as a Mitt Romney fan since last cycle — but I concur with her assessment here: “Many conservatives have told me in recent weeks that they are worried (no surprise) that Mitt Romney cannot clearly present the competing worldviews at stake in this election. I think in his speech tonight he gave those skeptics some confidence — as he showed some passion for turning around the disappointing policies of a failed president. And I think Newt Gingrich helped him to this, by making the New Hampshire primary in part a referendum on free enterprise.”
Mitt Romney’s campaign is now about something: the defense of free enterprise from a president and a movement who believe they can build a layoff-free, risk-free, insecurity-free future through government regulation of the economy. We’ve seen that vision crash and burn around the world, but we’re forced to make this argument and preserve (and restore) the system that has created more opportunity and more prosperity to more people than any other, one more time.
Bryan Preston: “As I write this Romney is delivering an uplifting speech worthy of the moment. The crowd is strongly behind him. He has been planning for this moment for five years. He is training all of his fire on President Obama, as if he is already the Republican nominee. He is a step closer to that tonight, but just a step. South Carolina has never been a state to go along with any other state’s ideas without due consideration and a strong look at its own interests.”
Allahpundit looks at the exit polls and observes, “Romney was the tea-party candidate, and not by a narrow margin either. (Fifty-one percent of voters called themselves [Tea Party] supporters; among that group, Romney beat Paul by 18 points.) He also won Republicans by more than 30 points and finished a close second to Paul among independents. The only demographic in which he got crushed was Democrats. The leader in that group: Huntsman, of course, with 41 percent.”
But Jonah is underwhelmed: “Romney is the weakest juggernaut in modern memory.”
Patrick Ruffini offers an assimilating slogan: “Mitt Romney is the nominee. Resistance is futile.”
Robert Stacy McCain was on the ground in New Hampshire: “At 8:26 p.m., Romney pre-empted all his rivals’ concession speeches by giving one of the earliest victory speeches I can recall. He took a shot at Gingrich and Perry — unnamed ‘desperate Republicans’ — and slammed Obama repeatedly. We are still awaiting the arrival of Rick Santorum here at his primary night celebration. He’s within 70 votes of Gingrich for fourth place with 23% of precincts reporting.”
Oh, come on, governor, can we really call Newt Gingrich desperate?
. . . er, okay.
As he fights for the Republican presidential nomination, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will appear with one of the South Carolina’s most prominent Democrats.
Gingrich is scheduled to speak at a homeownership rally on Thursday in front of the State House along with U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, South Carolina’s lone Democratic congressman.

A rally with Clyburn right before the South Carolina primary. He’s come a long way from that couch with Pelosi, no?