CHARLESTON, S.C.—Sealing a comeback few thought possible even a week ago, Newt Gingrich broke the Republican presidential race wide open in South Carolina Saturday with a crushing double-digit victory over Mitt Romney.

Riding on sheer fiery charisma, the former house speaker turned American voter volatility into an improbable landslide against Romney’s well-oiled electoral machine, claiming a resounding 40 per cent of the vote.

Romney ended the night with a dismal 28 per cent — a collapse that left the moderate former Massachusetts governor’s campaign reeling as the primary race shifts to next-up Florida.

The outcome turned conventional wisdom on its ear, stripping Romney of his front-runner status.

And it turned a sprint into what now is likely to be a marathon — many weeks, months even, before a single candidate can secure enough delegates to become the Republican standard-bearer against U.S. President Barack Obama in November.

Gingrich was magnanimous in victory, offering fulsome praise for each of his rivals before turning his gaze squarely on the Obama administration — and citing the recent mothballing of the Keystone XL pipeline project as evidence of an “out of touch” White House.

Gingrich name-checked Canada in his remarks to supporters in Columbia, S.C., warning Washington’s stance on the Alberta oilsands pipeline is steering Ottawa toward partnership with China.

“Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper — who, by the way, is a conservative and pro-American — will cut a deal with the Chinese,” Gingrich said “We have a president who can create a Chinese-Canadian partnership . . . (it is) truly a danger to this country.”

The margin of Gingrich’s victory was especially striking coming in deeply religious, staunchly conservative South Carolina, where undecided voters embraced the 68-year-old politician despite a well-publicized abundance of personal baggage including two failed marriages.

The unspoken victor Saturday is Team Obama, which clearly relishes the prospect of prolonged Republican infighting.

Veteran Democratic analyst James Carville could barely conceal his glee, calling Gingrich’s victory an “awesome political achievement.

“There was some gumption here, there was some courage,” Carville told CNN. “Let me salute Newt Gingrich on a magnificent political achievement.”

Romney put on a brave face for supporters in Columbia, S.C., saying, “This race is getting to be even more interesting.

“This is a hard fight because there’s so much worth fighting for. We’ve still got a long way to go and a lot of work to do,” said Romney. “Tomorrow we move on to Florida.”

Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum and libertarian insurgent Ron Paul rounded up the night with 17 per cent and 13 per cent, respectively — numbers that ensure both will continue their campaigns into Florida.

And in Paul’s case, far beyond, given the fiercely independent nature of his campaign, which has organized throughout the country with the goal of maximizing their candidate’s delegate count to give him maximum influence among Republican policy-makers at the party’s convention in August.

Yet Gingrich’s South Carolina victory reshapes the battlefield as a two-man contest, with the former house speaker aiming for outsider status — an authentic, if flawed, speak-on-the-fly conservative railing against “Washington and New York elites,” as he did from the podium Saturday night.

Romney, by contrast, now will struggle to pivot from the perceptions of inauthenticity — that of a ready-made prefab president, backed by party establishment and overwhelming financial advantage, by dint of his own deep pockets and corporate campaign contributors.

South Carolina may not reflect the whole of the American mood. But the stunning shift of undecided voters, who exit polling showed broke overwhelmingly toward Gingrich in the past week, suggests the real Romney now must make a far more visceral appearance if his candidacy is to prevail.

Several signals late Saturday suggested the Romney campaign is readying for a much more aggressive approach, with a series of major addresses next week timed to flank Obama’s State of the Union speech on Tuesday.

More than 6,000 votes — 1 per cent — went to Herman Cain, who is no longer in the race though his name remained on the ballot. That figure, a tenfold increase over Cain’s results in New Hampshire, belongs almost entirely to the followers of television comic Stephen Colbert and his faux-campaign to expose the absurdities of U.S. election financing laws.

Earlier Saturday, the wild swing underway in South Carolina was apparent at the polling precincts, where one after another, exiting voters told the Toronto Star they cast their lot with Gingrich. Many described with contempt the bombardment of negative advertising, citing Gingrich’s most recent debate performances as turning points.

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Vaughan Davidson, 65, was an exception of sorts — a Democrat who voted strategically, checking his ballot for Gingrich but nevertheless wants to see Obama re-elected in November.

“I’m looking forward to Obama kicking Newt’s ass so hard,” Davidson, a Charleston native, told the Star.

“For me, the bottom line is leadership. Obama showed tremendous leadership approving the raid on Osama bin Laden. I served with Special Forces in Vietnam, I understand the risk Obama took. And he’s going to get my vote for that alone.”

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