Despite not placing better than third place in any state since his win in Iowa, Santorum may score again—later today.
Polls show that Santorum is the only candidate right now that wins in a match up with Obama. Second place in this consideration is His Presumptiveness, the candidate formerly known as Most Electable. I don’t place much credence in such polls (as I said at Right On Life, we should not enter the primary process with the intention of picking the winner pre-determined by opinion polls; we should vote for our actual preference) but many others seem to. Some conservatives that say they like Santorum have questioned his electability. This polling data may alleviate their concerns and free them up to vote for their top choice.
An impressive 70-72 percent of Minnesotans, Missourians and Coloradans describe Santorum as likeable. Romney scored between 47 and 60 percent, Gingrich between 47 and 48. This may signal a couple of first place finishes for the former Senator.
Exit polls for Florida and Nevada showed that self-described conservatives and Tea Partiers voted for Romney. At first glance it began to look like the Coronation was virtually a done deal, but a deeper look may suggest a different picture. ABC News says, “Mitt Romney is still having trouble winning over the conservative crowd, according to more preliminary exit polls from Florida” and The Atlantic points out that Romney’s share of Nevada declined from 2008. It may be that the more conservative candidates are making headway. While establishmentarians from the left (“But why can’t the Republicans figure out who their nominee is already?” and the right (“While Republicans hope that the party will unite behind Romney” are frantically trying to nominate Romney without any more input from grassroots voters, this race is still too early to call.
Related articles
- Mitt Romney Turns Attention to Santorum (Update 1) (thestreet.com)
- Romney favored, Santorum lurking as 3 states vote Tuesday (mercurynews.com)
- PPP polls: Romney 14 up in Colorado, Santorum up two in Minnesota (hotair.com)
- Romney Fends Off Santorum Challenge (myfoxphoenix.com)
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