The Ballot Box

State Sen. Tom Davis channeled The Who this week when explaining his endorsement of GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul.

“I’m tired of individuals saying they’re going to cut spending, they’re going to get government out of our lives, when they have a record, when they’re in power, of doing precisely the opposite,” Davis said on the Fox Business Network. “I’m tired of all the rhetoric, and like The Who song says, I’m not going to be fooled again.”

Here’s the full interview with Davis:

With Iowa and New Hampshire out of the way, South Carolina's moment in the electoral sun is now.

Two GOP presidential candidates are slated to campaign this week in Beaufort, Bluffton and Hilton Head, according to press releases.

Rick Santorum will hold three events — part of a "Faith, Family and Freedom" tour — on Thursday:
• 10 a.m., Magnolia Hall, 114 Sun City Lane, Sun City
• Noon, Westin Hilton Head, 2 Grasslawn Avenue, Hilton Head
• 3 p.m., Beaufort Yacht & Sailing Club, 30 Yacht Drive, Beaufort

Rick Perry will hold two local meet-and-greet events Friday:

1) After coming in second — by just 8 votes — in the Iowa caucuses this week, Santorum’s campaign raised $1 million in one day.

2) Santorum takes social conservatism and traditional values seriously. For instance, in 2003, he said, “If the Supreme Court says that you have the right to consensual sex within your home, then you have the right to bigamy, you have the right to polygamy, you have the right to incest, you have the right to adultery.”

3) Bono, the Irish rock star, once characterized him thus: “I would suggest that Rick Santorum has a kind of Tourette’s disease; he will always say the most unpopular thing.”

With the Iowa caucuses — the first step in the GOP’s presidential nominating process — just a day away, Republican campaign ads are raining from the sky. Here are some of the latest and greatest.

1) Perry’s childhood home, tucked in a stretch of west Texas sometimes called the “Big Empty,” had no indoor plumbing for the first five years of his life.

2) After flying C-130s for the Air Force, he considered a career as a commercial airline pilot.

3) Perry’s electoral record is unblemished: He was undefeated in nine races for the Texas House of Representatives, state agriculture commissioner and governor.

1) Huntsman dropped out of high school to play keyboard in a rock band named Wizard, but later received his diploma.

2) Running for governor of Utah was his daughters’ idea: “They said, ‘We’d like our dad back. We haven’t seen very much of you.’ ”

3) His father, Jon Huntsman Sr., made his fortune by, among other things, inventing the containers that held McDonald’s Big Macs.

The bizarre saga of comedian Stephen Colbert’s attempt to buy naming rights for the S.C. Republican primary intensified Thursday morning, when Comedy Central’s spoof newsman explained how it all went down in The (Columbia) State newspaper.

1) Paul grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania but became a Texas ob-gyn who has delivered more than 4,000 babies.

2) His campaign has raised more than $12.6 million — a higher figure than any candidate except Mitt Romney and Rick Perry.

3) After decades as a fringe figure in the GOP, he now feels vindicated: “There’s recognition that the problems that the people have worried about and I’ve talked about are now here.”

1) Romney’s perception of the presidency was shaped by a dinner he had as a teenager with Dwight D. Eisenhower.

2) His great-grandfather Miles emigrated from England in 1837 after speaking with Mormon missionaries.

3) Teddy Kennedy defeated him in a 1994 U.S. Senate race, but Romney still pulled 41 percent of the vote.

Governor Nikki Haley endorsed Mitt Romney for president on Fox News this morning, and she will campaign with him in Greenville, Charleston and Myrtle Beach today.

"What I want is someone who is not part of the chaos that is Washington," Haley said. "What I wanted was someone who knew what it was like to turn broken companies around."