Haley was working the hustings for Romney all week, but on the last day, not in the way he wanted. Introducing him at his Greenville campaign headquarters Saturday morning, she veered into talking about the sore point of releasing his tax returns.

And though it’s her job as a surrogate to express full-blast optimism, Haley appeared to demonstrate a fundamental misreading of her state’s voters as recently even as people were heading to the polls. While Romney’s campaign was trying to lower expectations all day, Haley responded by cranking them up.

“Tonight is going to be a great night. We’re going to celebrate,” she said Saturday morning, predicting, “we are expecting today to be a great day. Everything is showing that it’s going to be what South Carolina primaries are, which is close. I love that.”