Riding a wave of momentum from his trio of victories on Tuesday Rick Santorum has opened up a wide lead in PPP's newest national poll. He's at 38% to 23% for Mitt Romney, 17% for Newt Gingrich, and 13% for Ron Paul.
Part of the reason for Santorum's surge is his own high level of popularity. 64% of voters see him favorably to only 22% with a negative one. But the other, and maybe more important, reason is that Republicans are significantly souring on both Romney and Gingrich. Romney's favorability is barely above water at 44/43, representing a 23 point net decline from our December national poll when he was +24 (55/31). Gingrich has fallen even further. A 44% plurality of GOP voters now hold a negative opinion of him to only 42% with a positive one. That's a 34 point drop from 2 months ago when he was at +32 (60/28)....
The best thing Romney might have going for him right now is Gingrich's continued presence in the race. If Gingrich dropped out 58% of his supporters say they would move to Santorum, while 22% would go to Romney and 17% to Paul. Santorum gets to 50% in the Newt free field to 28% for Romney and 15% for Paul.
Of course if there's been one constant theme in this GOP race it's that once you get to the top you tend to start heading back down. Only 48% of voters say they're solidly committed to their current candidate choice, while 52% say they're open to changing their minds...
Is this phenomenon new? I don't recall ever in a Presidential race, this many candidates not qualifying to get on the ballot. Perhaps it is common, but I don't recall. Is it because these candidates and their supporters didn't think that they really had a chance...and now that they are one of the ones left standing, they are scrambling? I'm really curious.
Since it is PPP, naturally, I'm a bit suspicious, but it certainly is in line with recent movement:
Up until now Santorum has been a fringe candidate, even within his own party.
Other than providing one of the few alternatives to "park" one's antiRomney vote during the primaries, what presidential qualities has Santorum suddenly displayed within the last week that went unrecognized during the previous 6 months and the televised debates?
And this is exactly why we conservatives don't like him lol.......In the end, you are going to have to fall in love with Romney. Its really for the best (for the Repubs, anyway) that you come to terms with that sooner rather than later.
Just curious as to your suspicion of PPP - During the 2008 presidential cycle, it was ranked the most accurate of all polling firms. During 2010, it fell to 13th, but still outranked Rasmussen, which was 15th (Field Polls came in first that year), and in 2011, not only perfectly called all the Wisconsin recall races, but also every single special election in Congress, something which no other polling firm was able to do. Some Republicans like to claim that PPP is biased more towards Democrats. If that were actually true, then why did it call ALL races correctly, even those which Democrats lost, when no other polling firm was able to do so? Here's why - PPP is calling Massachusetts for Elizabeth Warren over Scott Brown, and so Republicans are out to discredit them. Republican criticism of PPP is based, not on accuracy, but on politics alone. But what about Rasmussen? Republicans love to cite this one, and it's record is not as good as PPP. Again, it's politics.
Just curious as to your suspicion of PPP - During the 2008 presidential cycle, it was ranked the most accurate of all polling firms. During 2010, it fell to 13th, but still outranked Rasmussen, which was 15th (Field Polls came in first that year), and in 2011, not only perfectly called all the Wisconsin recall races, but also every single special election in Congress, something which no other polling firm was able to do. Some Republicans like to claim that PPP is biased more towards Democrats. If that were actually true, then why did it call ALL races correctly, even those which Democrats lost, when no other polling firm was able to do so? Here's why - PPP is calling Massachusetts for Elizabeth Warren over Scott Brown, and so Republicans are out to discredit them. Republican criticism of PPP is based, not on accuracy, but on politics alone. But what about Rasmussen? Republicans love to cite this one, and it's record is not as good as PPP. Again, it's politics.
The question remains, should you be voting for Santorum because you believe in his platform or because you are antiRomney.
Up until recently, Santorum was at the back of the pack, polling in single digits with a campaign financed on a "shoestring," so it can be assumed that conservative voters were not enamoured by him or his platform.
Just being "antiRomney" is not enough to vote someone into the White House!
Santorum has no platform...The platform is the Republican party's
Santorum has no platform...The platform is the Republican party's
The question remains, should you be voting for Santorum because you believe in his platform or because you are antiRomney.
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