Newt Gingrich skipped out of a scheduled appearance at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Friday morning, with campaign staffers citing sparse attendance — there were only a few dozen people in the arena.
Three hours later, 3,500 people crammed into Cistern Yard at the College of Charleston. The cell-phone network was overloaded as friends desperately tried to find each other. Students climbed the Spanish-moss-covered trees and leaned out the upper windows of Randolph Hall to get a better view.
They were all there to see Stephen Colbert.
