For Mitt and Newt, road to White House starts with breakfast Republican Mitt Romney took a big step on his road to the White House on Saturday -- onto a chair, then a table, over a breakfast of scrambled eggs, grits, bacon, and toast and ham. Romney and his fiercest rival, former House speaker Newt Gingrich, made dueling campaign stops at Tommy's Country Ham House in Greenville as South Carolina voters headed to the polls in the state's pivotal nominating primary. But a hoped-for face-off -- which some dubbed "The Thrilla in Greenvilla" after the 1975 bout between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier -- never materialized as Romney arrived 45 minutes before his scheduled time, avoiding Gingrich. With customers, gawkers, and well-wishers packing the eatery, Romney struggled to work his way through the crush of the boisterous crowd, shaking hands, posing for photographs, autographing signs. The former Massachusetts governor and multi-millionaire investor, dressed casually in jeans and a blue-checked shirt, climbed on a chair and hoarsely pleaded for support: "This campaign is about taking America back!" One woman shouted out "thank you for paying for our breakfast!" and Romney -- whom polls show trailing Gingrich here -- joked back: "We're happy to pay for breakfast, but there's no free lunch!" His way blocked, Romney grabbed an AFP reporter's shoulder, stepped on a chair, over the journalist's breakfast, onto the table, and over to the other side into the delighted but brief embrace of Elaine Stephens, 67. Stephens, a retired "media specialist and mom," was here with friend Cindy Sweetay 63, a retired flight attendant and fervent Gingrich supporter, each waving signs of their preferred candidate as they joked with reporters. "This is a table divided!" quipped Stephens, who was giving Sweetay a ride to the polling place after breakfast. Standing on a chair nearby, Nancy Langley, 58, waved signs from both candidates "because I'm undecided." But Gingrich's visit swung her to the former speaker's side: "He's just got a strong will to beat Obama. I think he will eat him alive. Like Romney, Gingrich climbed onto a chair, grabbed a microphone, and made his own closing arguments interspersed with gentle jabs at Romney, whom he mocked as a "Massachusetts moderate" and missing in action from what could have been an awkward face-to-face had both candidates stuck to their schedules. "I have a question, where's Mitt?" he said, to laughter from the crowd. I thought he was going to stay and we'd have a bit of a debate this morning. "I need your help," said Gingrich. This is a very, very important day. We have an opportunity to nominate the genuine conservative who can debate, and who can take it to Barack Obama. Kathy Durava, 58, braved the political madhouse despite having to wear a back brace as she recovered from two surgeries in the last two months of 2011 and said she had hoped to vote for former US China envoy Jon Huntsman. But he dropped out. I was torn. I really was not a Newt fan at all, but I think he's the only one that's going to do it, the only one that's going to kick ass" in the November elections, she said. As the dueling campaign stops wrapped up, one man strolled by with a sign seemingly stapled to his baseball cap, bearing the crossed-out word "undecided" and Gingrich's autograph.