Nikki Haley

West Columbia, S.C.
At a rally with Mitt Romney Wednesday evening, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley hit back at Romney's GOP rivals for attacking the frontrunner's work at Bain Capital. "I am proud of all our Republican candidates," Haley said. "But we have a real problem when we have Republicans talking like dang Democrats against the free market."

Nikki Haley, South Carolina's Republican governor, has endorsed Mitt Romney, according to a campaign release.

"Wal-Mart: Our shoppers are 'running out of money'"

"McConnell Turns the Tables on Budget Vote."

The Ben Bernanke word cloud: "For bonus points try to find the word 'jobs' in there."

Having utterly failed to convince the American people to embrace Obamacare, and facing a steadfast House of Representatives that has passed a bill to repeal Obamacare by a margin of 56 votes, the Obama administration — always probing for weakness — is now testing the resolve of Republican governors. So far, the verdict is mixed.

When Nikki Haley was 13, she balanced the books for her parents' small business. Now, as governor-elect, she faces a slightly more daunting task: plugging a billion-dollar hole in the state's budget. But Haley says she looks forward to the challenge.

Chris Cilizza reports that Nikki Haley is one step closer to becoming the next Republican governor from South Carolina:

Bill Kristol reported earlier that an aide to Rep. Gresham Barrett was circulating a story on Nikki Haley's religion this morning. Ben Smith reported last week that a "source close to the campaign ... said the Barrett campaign has at least discussed playing the religion card."

CNN published a story at 9:25 a.m. this morning titled "Haley's path to Christianity leaves some evangelicals uneasy." The story informs readers that Nikki Haley, who was raised a Sikh and converted to Christianity, "still attends Sikh services occasionally with her parents and extended family." It’s clearly a trouble-making attempt to gin up controversy among Republicans where there has been almost none, and so was able to find a couple of pastors who question whether Haley, the frontrunner in next Tuesday's South Carolina gubernatorial primary runoff, is really a Christian.

At 9:38 a.m., the CNN story was emailed to a colleague by a campaign consultant working for Haley's opponent, Rep. Gresham Barrett.

In the four-way South Carolina GOP gubernatorial primary, with 84 percent of precincts reporting, Nikki Haley has 49 percent of the vote--just shy of the 50 percent needed to avoid a runoff. The AP projects that she will get there. So she'll head to a runoff with Gresham Barrett, unless he decides to drop out.

On Tuesday, Bill Kristol called for a Haley/Peterson 2012 presidential ticket. Today, Rasmussen released a poll that shows Haley with a commanding lead for the first time in the Republican primary for governor of South Carolina. Coincidence?