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The good news for Rick Santorum keeps on coming. Santorum now has surged to a modest two point lead over Mitt Romney in Pew Research national Republican primary polling. The poll was conducted from February 8-12 directly after Santorum’s three big wins last Tuesday. From Pew:
Santorum is beating Romney, because he is now doing much better among more conservative voting groups. Santorum has a double digit lead among Tea Party supporters (42% Santorum – 23% Romney) and White Evangelicals (41% Santorum – 23% Romney).
Besides showing him with the national lead, the poll’s other piece of relatively good news for Santorum is that Romney does only slightly better than Santorum in a theoretical general election match up with Obama. Romney performs only two points better in the general. From Pew:
Obama leads Santorum by 10 points among all registered voters (53% to 43%) and his lead over Romney is nearly as large (52% to 44%). Romney ran about even with Obama in November and mid-January. Obama has a larger advantage over Newt Gingrich than over Santorum or Romney: Obama leads the former House speaker by 18 points (57% to 39%). Obama has made gains among independent voters. Today, 51% of independents favor Obama in a matchup against Romney, up from 40% a month ago.
Electability has always been a main selling point for Mitt Romney’s campaign. Against someone like Newt Gingrich, who has serious national imagine problems, the Romney campaign could easily make the argument to the base that nominating Gingrich would cost the GOP its one chance to beat Obama. With Romney only doing marginally better than Santorum in national polling, the electability argument becomes much hard for Romney’s campaign to make against Santorum.
26 Comments
“I, Senator Frothy Mix, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”
Wouldn’t THAT just fire up the democratic base!
Slightly off topic, wonderful cover of Adele’s Someone Like You.
Someone Like Newt.
“Obama has a larger advantage over Newt Gingrich than over Santorum or Romney”
Doesn’t matter. You can stir those names around, but after multi-millions from the PACs, the eventual candidate is going to have a tremendous advantage. (I read this morning that conservatism is increasing in the US. That’s the advantage of money, especially when it is used to buy radio, tv, and newspaper outlets. Propaganda pays dividends.)
“I read this morning that conservatism is increasing in the US. That’s the advantage of money, especially when it is used to buy radio, tv, and newspaper outlets. Propaganda pays dividends.”
It helps when you have a conservative in the WH like Obama, he gets Democrats to praise and fawn over conservative policies and practices that the Democrats used to protest as right wing extremism.
Read where? The MSM have been pushing the “America is a center-right country” meme since shortly after the Big Bang.
The numbers don’t indicate that conservatism is increasing – gay marriage, fewer people adhering to church doctrine, etc. Santorum is too crazy even for the Rs and I think they will do everything they can to stop him. All the Rs have to do is look at what happened with the Komen thing when women fought back by the thousands and Frothy doesn’t even believe in birth control. The Rs are nuts but they’re not NUTS!
A lot of them actually are NUTS!…but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s the big money boys who get presidents elected, and I suspect Sanctimonious Santorum is only slightly more palatable to the big money boys than he is to you or me. If he wins the nomination, expect even bigger Wall Street contributions to Obama’s pot.
I agree.
If Santorum ends up “winning” the “popular vote” for the Kabuki Show entitlted Republican primary? No biggie.
All that means is that the money boyz have figured out that they simply cannot run a credible race with Willard as the GOP “candidate.” They’ve tried every which way they can to “sell” Mittens, but even the conservative base – usually ever willing to do what “Daddy” tells them to do – simply cannot go for Mittens.
Newt’s just a frickin’ joke.
So somehow it ends up being Doug Coe’s boy’s “turn.”
Big deal. Wall St & the Banks’ll make sure that their “boy” Obama “wins” by a hugely giant landslide.
Santorum’s going nowhere, but he’ll be highly paid for his “work,” which will be to continue to push the Overton window. Lil icky ricky’ll have no problem doing that. It’s what he loves to do! That ‘n hate on the wimmin folk.
Santorum surges from Romney’s huge enthusiasm gap.
No kidding. The country, if anything, is going ever more “liberal,” albeit not at a fast pace.
I still recall when Obama “won” in 2008, and every rightwing “pundit” jumped up on the podium with their bullhorns blaring about how Team USA was “still a center right nation.”
It’s clear that the voters were FOOLED into voting for a Republcian named Obama, but that doesn’t mean that the *voters* wanted a GOP President. The majority of Americans wanted a more liberal POTUS, plus “real” (as in: old school) Dems in the House & Senate to, you know, truly look out for the interests of the 99%. Too bad so sad that didn’t happen.
However, Team USA is not “going more conservative.” That’s just the usual corporate-owned fascist media wurlitzer bullshit.
Oh, Pew!
Everybody stop being so intellectual about this! It all just stinks!
Romney’s only 2 points better than Santorum against Obama?
I can hardly wait for nominee Santorum to RE-iterate that he’s against abortion in the case of rape, incest, or a threat to the health of the mother. That’s going to play well with all of those irrelevant women voters.
More critically, once it becomes conventional wisdom that the GOP candidate simply isn’t going to beat Obama, third-party bids will leap in free of the label of “spoiler” to feast on the rotting carcass of the GOP.
We know Gary Johnson is angling for the libertarian wing of the GOP, Trump and Bloomberg might angle for the neocon wing leaving Rick Santorum (let’s say) representing the Christian wing.
It couldn’t happen to nicer set of guys…
And, Santorum leading Romney by FIFTEEN points in Michigan???!!!
I’ll believe that when I see the primary returns. If it’s true you’ll be able to smell the flop-sweat on Romney from a mile away.
I can only hope the repukes pick Frothy over Mittens…for a very selfish reason: I don’t want to be visited by those boys on bicycles for Mitt.
time to put up that “NO SOLICITING” sign again
Here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/this-is-why-america-keeps-getting-more-conservative-2012-2
Ouch. Weimar Republic? If this is actually valid (not yet convinced), then no wonder the NDAA, DHS, and militarism hasn’t had a popular pushback.
The population is becoming poorer, less educated and more likely to accept a fascist government. If so, the United States is a danger to the world.
Here’s the big irony of it all. Republican voters say the most important thing to them is beating Obama. They are too deluded to notice that Obama does nothing in policy that they don’t favor. Of course, Obama supporters are also too deluded to notice this.
Unless Santorum can show some useful polls contra Obama, the MOTU will crucify him before he gets close to the convention. Romney doesn’t have to do it. Although he is as sleazy as the rest of the crop, Santorum’s nomination would decimate the Republican Congressional representation. They already have the yahoo vote, and that is all he brings in.
Well, I’ll be… Stupid Tuesday looms, and Georgia is an open primary state. We were pondering voting for Pig Newton, but now I guess well have to join the Santorum surge. (EEEEWWWWW…..)
And let’s not forget that he opposes birth control. He’s a genuine barking, raving Talibangelical lunatic. Which is why I’ve decided to vote for him in the open Georgia primary.
Oh. Okay. The Atlantic. The once-respectable magazine that I used to subscribe to until they hired The Pasty Little Putz and McMegan McCurdle. Gotcha. I’ll give your cite all the dignity and respect I give The Putz and Ms. “I don’t understand how decimal points work and I’m a financial writer when I’m not extolling the virtues of pink Himalayan salt” McCurdle.
dueling theocracy-promoters. crazy. scary. sad.
gosh Marion, sorry I bent your antenna. I think I’ve finally timed out at FDL. I can’t even get people I agree with to be congenial. My political knowledge just isn’t broad enough to participate, anyway. So, bye, bye.
Right now people just see Santorum as that family guy in the seater vests. Just wait until his record comes up.
Obama will clean the GOP’s clock if Santorum is the candidate. Oh well their funeral.
Heh
Unfortunately we’re all going to have to live with the results of BOTH stupid parties(not just the guys). Sigh. Expatriation never looked so good.