The Republican race is taking its toll on Romney
Jonathan Jones 4:23pm
Rick Santorum’s surprise clean-sweep of three states on Tuesday certainly suggests that the battle for this year’s Republican
nomination will go on a fair bit longer than looked likely after Mitt Romney’s win in Florida a week earlier. But it doesn’t change the fact that Romney will, most
likely, emerge the winner. But where it once looked like he’d make a decent — if unexceptional — challenger to Obama in November, he’s starting to seem much less electable.
Just look at the slide in his poll numbers. At the beginning of the year, a Washington Post poll
found that 39 per cent of Americans had a positive view of Romney, against 34 per cent with a negative one — a net positive rating of 5 points. But in their latest, less than one-in-three
have a good opinion of him, while almost half have a bad one — his net rating has dropped to minus 18:
And his head-to-head polling with Obama tells a similar story. Rasmussen Reports, who had Romney leading by six points just before the New Year, have just released a poll with Obama up by ten. That’s three points more than
Obama’s margin of victory over John McCain four years ago. Of course there’s still a long way to go to election night — nine months in fact — but these trends threaten to
undermine Romney’s main selling point in the Republican primaries: electability.
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Faceless Bureaucrat
February 10th, 2012 4:42pm Report this commentMeanwhile, sorry to go off-topic here - but has anyone else picked-up on the story in the last few minutes that North Korean Leader, Kim Un has been assasinated inside the NK Embassy in Bejing?...?
telemachus'
February 10th, 2012 4:43pm Report this commentSantorum is truly frightening. Think of your worst 1930's European Dictator, move 2 paces to the right and you have him. The only difference will be compulsory church 7 days a week. Lets hitch ourselves to Europe quick
El Sid
February 10th, 2012 5:10pm Report this comment@Faceless Bureaucrat - not sure you can call it a story yet, it all seems to be based on Twitter rumours of lots of black cars being called to the DPRK embassy. Probably just the usual Twitterstorm, you never know though.
telemachus'
February 10th, 2012 5:18pm Report this commentFaceless Bureaucrat-Yes Kim Jong-un was slaughtered this morning.
Sad that this poor peace loving nation is so cruelly used
porkbelly
February 10th, 2012 6:19pm Report this commentThere is a real possibility that the Republican race will be decided at the convention and the ultimate nominee will be someone not currently in the hunt.
Ostrich (occasionally)
February 10th, 2012 7:18pm Report this commentTime for Kim Jong-deux?
anon
February 10th, 2012 8:50pm Report this commentClicked through to the Rasmussen report. Paragraph 4 began with the interesting line "Rick Santorum now trails the president by four percentage points, 46% to 42%". This one bears close watching...
Chris
February 10th, 2012 8:52pm Report this commenttelemachus, your comment is without a doubt the most stupid thing I have read anywhere, ever.
Wilhelm 1
February 10th, 2012 9:53pm Report this commentTelemuckus
'' Think of your worst 1930s European dictator.''
Stalin. Do I win a prize ?
telemachus'
February 11th, 2012 8:08am Report this commentChris
February 10th, 2012 8:52pm
I agree the second was stupid. I rely on my own twitter feeds. The State Department have denied it to ABC
Kaiser-No. I would feel Uncle Joe is cuddly like Bill C.
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