Lee Bandy knows more about politics in South Carolina than just about anybody. For 40 years, Bandy has been among the best political prophets in a state whose primary has correctly picked every Republican candidate for US President since 1980.

In just over a week, on Jan 21, the state's, and Bandy's, powers of prognostication will be tested once more, in a Republican primary season whose unpredictable twists and turns have made fools of many prophets.

Right now Bandy, a veteran columnist with The State newspaper in Columbia, is betting on Mitt Romney to win the South Carolina primary, and small wonder.  

Whether or not he gets to the White House by eventually beating Democrat Barack Obama in November's presidential election, Romney is already on the verge of making history.

No Republican candidate has ever followed a win at the Iowa caucus, which Romney secured narrowly last week, with victory in the New Hampshire primary, and virtually everyone but his opponents expects that he will do just that on Tuesday night.

The latest polls show Romney with a 20-point lead over his nearest rival in New Hampshire and recent polls in South Carolina show him having leapfrogged more conservative opponents into first place there.

"A lot of Republicans down here don't like Romney," Bandy said of South Carolina voters. He was referring especially to the two thirds of Republican primary voters in the Palmetto State who are evangelical Christians. They are leery not only of Romney's Mormon faith but also of his earlier moderate positions on abortion and gay marriage, among other social conservative apostasies.

"But many have decided to vote for him because they think he's going to get the nomination. The aim here is to unseat Obama, and there's no real movement toward any other candidate."

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney greets supporters outside the Rochester Opera House in Rochester, New Hampshire January 8, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]