Romney and Paul: national candidates

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When Mitt Romney starts making his case to South Carolina voters starting tomorrow in Columbia, he could stress that he is a “national candidate.”

In an email to reporters today, the Romney campaign points out that, aside from Ron Paul, Romney is the only candidate to appear on every state’s primary ballot.

“It begs the question of if these candidates are really national candidates or just regional candidates,” wrote Amanda Henneberg, a Romney spokeswoman.

According to the Romney campaign:

• Newt Gingrich is not on the ballot in Missouri and Virginia and did not qualify for all of the delegates in Tennessee

• Rick Santorum is not on the ballot in Virginia, Ilinois and Washington D.C.. He did not qualify for all of the delegates in Ohio and Tennessee

• Jon Huntsman is not on the ballot in Arizona, Virginia and Illinois. He did not qualify for all of the delegates in Ohio and Tennessee.

• Rick Perry is not on the ballot in Virginia. He did not qualify for all of the delegates in Ohio, Tennessee and Illinois.

The strategy could work with those S.C. Republicans who value the state’s role in “picking presidents.” Since 1980 -- the first year South Carolina Republicans held a presidential primary -- the winner of the South Carolina Republican primary has always gone on to win the party’s nomination.

It’s one of the main reason South Carolina’s primary is so important.

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