Newt Gingrich's verbal pyrotechnics won the day in South Carolina, but can the resurgent former speaker of the House overcome Mitt Romney's big lead in Florida and repeat the miracle here?

Is there even time?

I hope not, but that's a matter for later.

Gingrich thinks there's time aplenty. The GOP Presidential Primary in the Sunshine State may be only eight days away, but Gingrich's feet barely hit the floor after Saturday night's South Carolina results were final, when he was urging his supporters on Twitter, “Help me deliver the knockout punch in Florida.”

And he was all over television Sunday morning, too, reminding us that during the last week of November he scored a yawning lead in Florida polls. He said his allies believe he can get that edge back, no problem, after this week's two-candidate debates, Monday night in Tampa and Thursday night in Jacksonville.

He does most certainly have an action plan, if you want to call it one.

In an interview with MSNBC Sunday morning, Gingrich's longtime spokesman Rick Tyler, who now helps head the candidate's super-PAC Winning Our Future, laid out a plan for the week ahead: tie Romney to once-beloved Charlie Crist, who lost both his popularity as governor within the GOP and his chances of serving in the Senate when he chose to be the moderate alternative to tea party Senate candidate Marco Rubio.

"There's been a winnowing out of the conservative contenders," said Tyler. "I think Newt is now the only one left standing. So, if 75 percent of the party doesn't want Mitt and the Republican Party is acting like nominating Mitt is like getting a wildcat into a trash can, then I think the job is simple. We simply align Newt Gingrich with the 75 percent who don't want Mitt. I think here in Florida, all we have to do is remind people that Mitt Romney is Charlie Crist. If you voted for Charlie Crist, then you should vote for Mitt. If you didn't vote for Charlie Crist, then you should vote for Newt."

Gingrich has an uphill climb, and here's why:

Money

Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina -- all are dinkier states than Florida in every way,  but especially in terms of marketing a message that connects to the voters. In the Sunshine State he is looking at 10 major media markets, which will dilute the impact of retail campaigning.

Bottom line: It's going to cost Gingrich a pretty penny to compete in Florida. Romney has spent well over $6 million on paid media here already and the former speaker is yet to get a single ad up and airing. What he needs to do is infuse his campaign with millions of dollars of his own money -- and hope casino king Sheldon Adelson makes good on his promise to kick in $5 million to the Winning Our Future super-PAC.

You'll hear it said, money isn't everything. After all, Romney outspent Gingrich bigtime in South Carolina and has little to show for it. As Barack Obama adviser David Axelrod tweeted after South Carolina, "If you & SuperPac spend $4.7m, and get zero delegates, how much did you spend per delegate?"

Trouble is, running a presidential primary campaign on the cheap works only so long and only so well. Going into the last week in Florida, Gingrich is woefully behind in the cash department.

Support

Gingrich finally may be ready to make his move, but in Florida 185,400 absentee ballots have already been cast. Add to that another 11,836 early votes at open precincts. Romney was leading in all polls when early voting opened.

Here's what Bill Burton of the Democratic super-PAC Priorities USA Action emailed on Saturday: "Given the fact that hundreds of thousands of absentee ballots have already been collected by the Romney campaign, it is mathematically improbable that Gingrich could win (Florida)."