Romney to Outline Foreign Policy Plan at The Citadel

CHARLESTON - Making his second appearance in South Carolina, GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney will deliver a foreign policy speech at The Citadel on Friday morning.

Romney, who immediately vaulted to frontrunner status when he declared his candidacy in the spring, has been battling to maintain his standing in the GOP field against all-comers.

Rep. Michelle Bachman (R-Minn.) stole the spotlight for a while, then Texas Gov. Rick Perry jumped into the race and took over favored status until a couple of fumbled debate performances started to let the air out of his own campaign.

Even Newt Gingrigh managed to steal the spotlight for all of a few days back in May until he broke Pres. Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment on Meet the Press, calling congressional GOP budget plans "right-wing social engineering."

Through it all Romney kept raising money. He brought in more than $18 million in the second quarter of this year and is expected to have pulled in another $10 million to $15 million in the third quarter, according to Reuters.

On Friday he plans to talk foreign policy at The Citadel in Buyer Auditorium at 10:45 a.m. In addition to his talk at The Citadel, Romney plans to speak to veterans at 2 p.m. Thursday at Patriots Point in Mount Pleasant.

Now that N.J. Gov. Chris Christie is out of the race, Romney remains the front-runner as the choice of 25 percent of respondents to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll. That same poll showed businessman Herman Cain gaining 13 percentage points to tie for second in the field at 16 percent with Perry who lost 13 percentage points from the previous poll.

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was the only other candidate in the poll to break into double digits with 11 percent.

In the Palmetto State however, . A recent Winthrop University poll found Perry still leading Romney in South Carolina 30.5 percent to 27.3 percent. However that poll showed Perry's lead shrinking from 11 percentage points to 3.2 from August to September.

Since Perry entered the race, Romney, who had seemed to be concentrating on New Hampshire, has ramped up his campaign's presence in South Carolina. He traveled here to participate in and picked up the , a heavy-hitter in S.C. Tea Party circles. Then he returned a week later to .

twice to campaign for him.