Obama’s Battleground Advantage
A new Rasmussen poll for four battleground states — North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida — gave Obama a 3 point lead this week, two points closer than in a prior survey.
It will be very difficult for Mitt Romney to win if he does not carry Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. Most analysts think the Republican ticket will win both Indiana and North Carolina this time around , given how narrowly Obama won these traditional GOP leaning states in 2008. If Romney were to lose Ohio, he would need to win Pennsylvania, a state where Obama’s approval ratings have been weak and the GOP had a very good year in 2010. Of the three western states, Colorado is considered more of a tossup than Nevada or New Mexico .
The outcome in the battleground states will to a large extent reflect the national popular vote outcome. If either candidate wins by 3% or more, he will likely win most of the competitive battleground states. Where Obama may have an edge is that his superior ground effort may give him a point or two boost in some of these states. The Romney campaign and its Super PAC supporters have very effectively used negative advertising to tar first Newt Gingrich, and then Rick Santorum during the primary season. Unlike 2008, the Republicans will not be badly outspent this time around, and there seems much less reluctance to make Barack Obama, as well as his record, an issue.
Several events from this past week suggest there is fertile ground for negative or comparative ads. Obama’s open mic disaster with his “message to Vladimir” has already been made into one ad, and there will be more. Just what will Barack Obama do in a second term, beyond selling out our European allies to please the Russians? For Jewish voters who care about Israel, the leaking of information on Israel’s ties to to Azerbaijan, undoubtedly designed to forestall Israeli military action against Iran ,and the State Department’s statement on Jerusalem, suggesting that none of the city was in Israel, were both damaging. Worst of all was the disastrous performance of the administration’s attorneys trying to defend Obama’s signature “achievement,” the “Affordable Health Care Act” (Obamacare as even its defenders started calling it this week), at the Supreme Court. If the Court were to throw out the entire law or much of it, it is likely this would help the Republicans up and down the ticket .
Over the past few days, the daily tracking polls conducted by Rasmussen and Gallup have shown a few point drop in Obama’s numbers. While these tracking polls have regular fluctuations, if they stay down for a bit, and the head-to-head matchups between Obama and Romney show some movement towards Romney, it will suggest that the week’s events may have taken a bit of a toll on Obama.
We are still more than seven months out from November 6, and Obama remains the favorite. Intrade gives him a 60% chance at the moment of winning re-election, which sounds about right. Obama has more red states to play in than Romney will have blue states. That is the most important reason why he is the favorite.






**A Wisconsin win for Santorum would mean only one thing; that his delusions of becoming the eventual nominee will continue a bit longer**
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It will also mean that Wisconsin voters do NOT want Romney as the nominee and that the Romney camp’s delusions of voters actually liking him will continue a bit longer.
News flash – no candidate has gotten more than 50% of the vote. Only one candidate has gotten 50% of the vote or greater in one state: Romney in his home state of Massachusetts.
The same arguments which supposedly show that voters do not want Romney also show that they want Santorum even less. If the voters want Santorum so much, why has he received just 27% of the popular vote so far?
And what makes anyone think that any GOP candidate will actually defeat Obama?
It’s not as if any moderate Republican has ever defeated an incumbent liberal. Independent voters see moderate Republicans as poor man’s liberals and distrust them, rightly I think – look at Nixon or Bush41. I think that most independent voters believe that Republicans are supposed to be conservative to Democrat’s liberalism and Romney is unable to convince even those who want to believe him that he is actually a genuine conservative rather than a “practical” businessman. To my mind Romney leads because he’s less looney than his competition rather than because we believe that he’s a conservative and we have some faint hope that because he seems rational by comparison he may be able to unseat Obama.
I remember fretting in 1980 whether or not Ronald Reagan would win or not. I was in line to vote when I heard that Carter had already conceded the race. Wha???
I truly feel that the despair and unhappiness in America will result in a decisive win for Romney and many Republicans who run for national office. Obama sucks so bad that we need to be diligent but confident coming into November. Are you better off now than you were 4 years ago? I think not.
Totally agree. People are so mortified at the prospect of Obama being reelected, they create these fearful scenarios at every turn. Obama won because the idea of Rino McCain was intolerable to middle voters and they decided to give the black guy a chance. Obama has met and surpassed all the very worst things said about him. His only votes this year are racial votes and the messed-up liberals, he’s lost the crossovers and reelection. This will parse out in the numbers over the summer.
And yet when he’s un-elected the fingers-on-a-chalkboard squeal from the left via the non-stop media will be deafening. There may be riots but more than that, there will be cases of passive-aggressiveness from blacks who are angry that their guy was thrown out. Sharp-tongue and JACK-son will make more money giving speeches on whitey’s obvious hatred of black presidents and on and on.
My answer will be, “Well, he’s not the president anymore and OJ’s in prison. Deal with it.”
This is in rebuttal to how blacks felt when OJ was found not-guilty in the 90′s and how they (and Obama) acted when the “first black president” was elected; Two of the largest failures in this nation’s history.
I was in line to vote [in 1980] when I heard that Carter had already conceded the race. Wha???
You must have been in the West; Carter is a gift that keeps on giving, his early concession is credited with causing several Democratic Congressmen in California to lose their races, which was fixed when Burton did the first computerized gerrymander following the 1980 census.
If the electorate in this country is stupid enough to give Obama four years of unfettered, unrestrained socialist rule without fear of reprisal in the form of losing re-election all because Mitt Romney isn’t “perfect,” then to hell with it. I know my conscience will be clear. Elections have consequences, and if Obama is re-elected, the lobotomized sheep that voted for him will have only themselves to blame, and the “Republicans” that enabled his victory because they couldn’t get behind Romney will be just as guilty as the Obamabots.
This should be a slam dunk, no doubt, laugher. And instead it’s setting up as one of the most bungled elections in the history of the republic. It’ll be the biggest indictment on the education level of this country ever, because no one with a single modicum of intelligence should pick Barack Obama over Mitt Romney. Stop crying and moaning about Romney’s weaknesses as a candidate; this election is about Obama. I don’t care if his opponent is a poorly trainer monkey from a circus. People should be lining up in droves to vote for the chimp over Obama. It shouldn’t take eight years and the complete cratering of everything America stands for to wake people up. Four years should be enough.
That would be “trained,” not “trainer.”
Agree with you 100%. I still can’t understand why anyone claims to support Obama, but if he should be re-elected, well, the country will deserve exactly what it will get.
if the unborn nowhereman gets a second term, I hope, that States such as Oklahoma think about a segregation… and I’ll gladly rent an U’haul….
I am of the opinion that a lot of folks say “Obama” when asked their choice, possibly for fear of being thought racist by the pollster. But in the privacy of the voting booth. . . .
Even if you don’t pay much attention to what’s going on, you really do have to be 1)an idiot 2) an ideologue or 3)a parasite to think that Obama’s been good for this country. Maybe we’ll be surprised in November to learn that a big chunk of the electorate has had it with this guy.
Working against that hope of an enlightened citizenry, the cold knowledge that sixty million people voted for the Won in ’08 though where he was coming from was clear even with the MSM covering for him.
I think that these polls are meaningless. I really do. I have two major reasons for saying this. First, the polls do not measure the amount of anger that is out there AGAINST Obama. This guy is really hated by a lot, and I mean a lot, of voters. They are very motivated to vote against him and they will spend lots of time and money in trying to defeat him in November. The second reason I say this is that you are seeing more and more articles about how UNMOTIVATED a lot of Obama’s base is this year. You are seeing lots of articles on how few college students want to vote for him (let alone are enthusiastic about re-electing him) and you’re not hearing a lot of enthusiasm coming from blacks and Hispanics. The far-left is angry at him because he hasn’t gotten single-payer insurance passed (and ObamaCare may also go down to defeat as well) and because he hasn’t passed even more government handouts through Congress (thanks to the Republicans in the House of Representatives). And the Jews don’t like Obama because of how badly he has treated Israel. So, all in all, Obama is not nearly as popular as he was in 2008, when people didn’t know how far to the left he really was and poorly he would govern as president. And remember, Romney isn’t even the official candidate yet. Once he is, he can really start unloading on Obama and then you may see the poll numbers drop even more. I think Obama is in deep trouble politically and the White House knows it.
“And remember, Romney isn’t even the official candidate yet. Once he is, he can really start unloading on Obama and then you may see the poll numbers drop even more.”
I agree Ls46. Problem is: we don’t have any way of knowing when Romney will be the official candidate … unless somebody, somehow, can figure out a way to get Santorum to face reality. The longer he continues, the more difficult it will be to prevent another four years of Obama Incorporated.
I agree. I think that even the conservaties have no idea of the depth and scope of the anger at Obama among the people.
“I think that these polls are meaningless. I really do.”
That is until the polls comport with what you are already inclined to believe, then they will have all sorts of meaning, right? LOL.
I have trouble believing most any poll as I figure it’s designed to illustrate evidence supporting the given pollster’s agenda(s).
What makes me cautiously optimistic though about an Obama loss this fall? His dismal record & his sgawd-awful policies.
Romney will have two things going for him that prior Republican nominees (McCain, Bush, and Dole) lacked:
1. Romney can speak coherently about the benefits of free markets and smaller government. This quality should not be underestimated.
2. Romney will pick a VP nominee that won’t hurt his chances (i.e. Palin) and will help him to win a state (as in Rubio may deliver Florida).
Polls this far away from the election mean nothing. Carter led Reagan by 25 points in March 1980. Polls conducted by Democrat Party supporting polling firms oversample Democrats. They are push polls as described by Bernie Goldberg in his book Arrogance.
Obama was at 69 on Intrade a week or so ago. He’s dropped 9 points and the campaign against him hasn’t begun. Obama’s record can’t withstand scrutiny. The people will start to tune out a media which presents a narrative the opposite of what they see in their own lives. Americans aren’t stupid enough (barely) to re-elect Obama.
How many Americans will not know on election day that the Senate rejected one Obama budget 97-0 and the House another budget 414-0. This fiscal disaster won’t be re-elected.
Obama won in 2008 only because:
1. His base was ultra-energized. that’s not true this time.
2. Our base was de-energized. That’s also not true this time. We may not be energized about the nominee but we are certainly energized about preventing a second Obama term.
Add to that the fact that there is no Bush fatigue to help bolster Obama’s odds this time around. That proverbial billboard featuring a pic of Bush with the caption “Miss me yet?” no doubt would enjoy broader appeal after 3-plus years of being witness to all the damage the Obama administration has done here domestically & abroad.
And add to THAT the fact that enough independent and ‘centrist’ voters were fooled into voting for him. They now know better.
All the funding and organizing in the world won’t help you if the electorate has already made up its mind. And I believe it has.
Polling date does not support what you suggest. Therefore, all you submit is an opinion based on the fact that you don’t like Obama.
Polls mean very little at this point in the campaign. By and large up until now Obama has been more of side show. Thus far the campaign has been within the GOP and not between the GOP and Obama. But Obama has huge vulnerabilities: he is a very poor legislative politician. Just this week his budget was defeated somerthing like 414 to zero, a complete shutout.
What is Obama going to do if he wins a second term? Fix the deficit? He had a perfect opening with the Deficit Commission and did nothing. He seems to like to campaign much more rather than govern. But allowing the likes of Reid and Pelosi to write legislation was insane, wasn’t it?
If Romney wins and picks Mario Rubio as his VP candidate in Tampa, I think the tide will turn. Rubio is young but he has gravitas in spades. Compare Rubio with hapless Joe Biden.
There is plenty of evidence that Obama is bad news. I think those who remain silent on the subject will let their feelings be known in November. By that I mean the election will not be close but in the Republican’s favor, whoever that may be.
As to the Romney-ites and their die-hard fascination with an admittedly imperfect human-being, it’s WHERE he’s imperfect that I care about. I’m not resigned to the notion that he will be the next president but if he is, he will operate in a way that is just as detached from society as the big zero.
However, I am hoping that his lackings can be corrected for by a cabinet and a congress and senate that know American is still 70%+ conservative and doesn’t want more government intervention but less. I doubt, though that Romney thinks this way. I believe he’s one who thinks that “to fix a bad government program, you must replace it with a good government program” and that’s been the DC ruling-class modus operandi for decades.
The national socialists love it because they have something they can then tweak to their liking. The ruling class republicans like it because it appears to justify their existence.
As a citizen, I really do get sick of watching the BS that goes on at the “cool kid” table that is the high school lunchroom know as DC.
I only have one vote. This country has over 300 million people. We have had over three years to witness the collapse of the Republic that the monster Hussein and the Marxocrat Party has foisted on us. After all of that, if the majority of the people could still willingly vote for the continued destruction of this country at the hands of the Marxocrats, then this country is so far gone that an election won’t stop the coming catastrophe.
As others have noted, the polls at this stage are worthless. For myself, I’m going by the adage that you shouldn’t let “perfect” be the enemy of “good enough.” I live in NYC so my vote is wasted, but I’m still going for Romney. Besides, if the House and Senate can evidence a more rightward shift that should balance things out.
I agree with the many here that think the polls are meaningless. Once the negative ads start to hammer away at Obama’s weaknesses (and there are many) it’ll serve to remind voters of how bad a job Obama has done. And make no mistake – there will be negative ads highlighting Obama’s previous 3 1/2 years complete with every boondoggle – bow to Saudi Royalty – ‘private’ comments in front of an open mic – spending mis-calls such as Solyndra and the porkulus bill that cost us one trillion (and for what?) – how GM stockholders got screwed out of their stocks illegally – and the list goes on.
Lets just hope the nominees team has the cahones to produce and run those ads – and the PACs of course. I don’t like negative ads but polls show they work, fine, if thats what it takes to sway the uninformed then so be it – run em day and night.
Unlike 2008 when Obama was a blank sheet he now has a record. Such a target-rich candidate has never existed in all the history of our great nation IMO. A well planned assault on that record should ensure that we have a new president this time next year. I for one am looking forward to that!
The only poll that matters won’t be held for a few months. Regardless of who gets the Republican nomination we need to get behind that person with our support and money to defeat Obama. The future of our country is at stake.
A few of my thoughts: Number one is that Mr. Santorum, Mr. Gingrich, etc. need to stop letting their over sized egos influence them and get out of the race now. I especially despise Santorum. While I consider myself a moral and religious person, I think humility is very important. Santorum is too full of himself. Number two, I cannot believe how ignorant some of my fellow Americans are for wanting Obama over practically anybody. I truly believe that most of the Obama supporters, must only like him because of his charisma, and chutzpah. Facts need not apply.
rrbs: “charisma”? How about “alleged charisma”?
There is a very good chance with the addition of reformulated gasoline for the spring and summer months, that gas will hit $6.00 a gallon this summer in many locations. I feel confident saying that to the millions and millions of real middle class consumers, that one look at the pump will far outweigh any amount of money campaigns can raise for propaganda to stroke Obama. Personal bills don’t lie.
This entire scenario is a carbon copy of the precursor to the 2008 collapse, and we didn’t learn then. And we are $5.5 trillion more indebted now, with a downgrade. Obama is out of bullets to do anything about the economy and it now time to start advertising just how pathetic Obama has been. Until now, it’s been nothing but Republican infighting.
But the real fight hasn’t begun.
The media is trying their dead level best to swing the lines the economy in recovery, but I don’t believe so and I don’t think the majority of Americans do either. If gasoline stays high, if food continues to increase in price, if war breaks out and crude increases, or the stock market collapses – and I give all of these a real good chance that they happen before an election, the Presidents get the blame, whether they deserve it or not.
I don’t believe Romney will just win. I think he will win going away if he plays his cards right.
Tex: I suspect that higher-priced reformulated gasolines (California-style) will hit the market after the election—-when Dear Leader is “more flexible.”
Reformulated gasoline is sold in many areas of the country each year during the hot summer months to reduce ozone pollution, so prices will be even higher around June through early September. At the same time, after the “ozone” season, there may be slight price reductions between Labor Day and the election, which the Obama campaign will attempt to claim credit for.
Obama’s campaign strategy is inadequate to maintain him in a serious action such as the Tea Party will put to him. He has corruption in the coop, hate on the hoof, racism in the rotunda, taqiyya on the tongue and bats in the belfry — that’s his campaign strategy. He can probably maintain himself in the type of fighting the Tea Party will give him in Mexifornia and a few states on the North East front. After that it will make no difference how many thousands of dead he has voting for him early and often, and if Americans want America and the Presidency back in 2012, the Tea Party will give it to them.
Come this November there will be a glorious day
On election night Obama Louie will get a bloody bouquet!
He will gaze on The American Goddess of Justice
With her shimmering, glimmering electoral blade
As she kisses him, she will sing him a last serenade
Those people voting to re-elect Obama in 2012 will be — if he indeed gets re-elected — more dismayed about how things turn out than were those people forty years ago who voted to re-elect Richard Nixon.
Romney will defeat Obama. With all due respect, until Romney actually clinches the nomination Obama can just sit back and watch Santorum do his work for him. But 2010 proved to be Obama’s undoing BIGTIME. Don’t be fooled by the media, Romney is going to smoke Obama in November.
Keep drinking the tea … Yes, the guy who is the father of Obamacare is going to argue that the very policy he suggested Obama should adopt at the federal level is now not really what he meant? Don’t take my word for it though, take up your argument with the candidate himself in his own words. Mitt Romney will be the weakest Republican candidate in a generation. Why? Because everything candidate Etch-a-Sketch will argue against will likely be a position he has taken in the past.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/mitt-romneys-suggested-three-times-in-2009-that-o
I have to disagree with author’s assumptions—and betters’ odds—that Obama has a better than even chance of winning reelection. An incumbent wins because people have gauged his performance in office as acceptable enough where going with an unknown, which Romney isn’t, is less appealing, maybe far less.
For independents Obama was a closed book in 2008, but he certainly isn’t this time. Most of the independents that voted for him were informed only to the extent that they knew they didn’t want to take a chance on another Republican.
But the kind of information theyneed to make what would be for them a comfortable decision this year has been out there in sufficient quantities and depth of reportage for a while now—they certainly spoke their minds about something in 2010. So, unless a large number of them have for some unearthly reason changed their minds in the meantime or have recently become addicted to the dim lights of the MSM—and not exactly true independents, they won’t be comfortable voting for Obama again.
One of the strange things about Obama is that his personal approval ratings are consistently higher than the ratings for his policies, for the actions of the Obama administration.
One of the tasks for the Republicans in the summer and fall will be to tie Obama to his own actions (and words) in the mind of the public.
We can’t get onto this until our endless primary season comes to an end.
The reason Obama’s personal approval is higher than his job approval is very simple. People who answer the polls are afraid to be called racist. In real life You can’t separate a president/politician from his/her policies, but in Obama’s case the same logic doesn’t apply. In 2008 two things worked in Obama’s favor a)Bush fatigue, b)His skin color. At the time most people were convince, that the election of Obama will redeem The U.S.A from its past sins toward African Americans. Is anyone truly believe a white man with Obama’s resume could ever be elected president?
I take this to mean that America is still a Christian nation. We hate the sin, not the sinner.
One of the strange things about Obama is that his personal approval ratings are consistently higher than the ratings for his policies, for the actions of the Obama administration.
That’s not so strange. In fact, it happens quite frequently. People like the man or woman personally, but disagree with their policies and/or actions. Clinton is probably the best example of this phenomenon – they know he’s a womanizing, lying, triangulating scoundrel, but they like him personally. One woman I know kept on denying that Clinton lied, even after he himself admitted lying! Obama is probably a nice man personally – I have yet to see him lose his temper – but his policies are disastrous for America. For a local level example, we had a sheriff who was a pretty good sheriff, but he got indicted by the feds for some sexual shenanigans, was convicted & served about a year in federal prison. He was nonetheless still well-liked & had he been able to run again, he could have been (re)elected.
I still cannot for the life of me figure out why politicians who get caught with their hand(s) in the cookie jar lie about it. Case in point: Anthony Weiner. If he had just admitted what he did on the front end, he might could have kept his Congressional seat, but when he came out with the ridiculous story about his account being hacked and wouldn’t fess up, that was what really made people mad. Most electorates around the country are quite forgiving of personal shortcomings, but they are quite unforgiving about cover-ups.
I don’t see how Obama can win in the fall, particularly if gas prices are still hovering in the $4-5 range, but I can see how the Republican nominee (whoever it may be) can lose it. The price of gas is the one thing Obama cannot hide from or receive cover from the adoring MSM.
“Obama is probably a nice man personally…”
Honestly, I do not understand where you get that, considering the nature of some of his comments & actions that paint him as an immature, petulant, arrogant narcissist; he also strikes me as being very uptight & anal to boot.
Romney out-spent and out-organized? Maybe. But it still comes down to this: Any nation willing to reelect someone like Barack Obama deserves him.
My money still says Obama wins FIVE states Max.
Does anyone know a person who WILL vote for Øbama this time who didn’t vote for him in 2008? I know of no one. I personally know, and know of many who made the mistake of voting for him in 2008 but who won’t be fooled again this upcoming election. Democrat polls taking by democrat pollsters and publicized on democrat TV stations don’t impress me.
The you should perhaps check out the Real Clear Politics composite of all polls, which even includes conservative leaning Rassmussen. They are usually on target. But unless the poll doesn’t comport with what you are already inclined to believe, then I suppose it doesn’t matter much how reputable they are, right?
Your article is well written, I really like, thanks!
I learn something, thank you share!
Would Rubio connect with Hispanics in the Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico? If Romney were to go with Martinez or Sandoval, could that cost the Republicans in Florida? Would Portman help Romney win Ohio, where Obama’s ground game is vastly superior? Will Mormons give Romney an edge in Nevada and, to a lesser extent, in New Mexico and Colorado?
Not much reason for we Republicans to be too optimistic at this point, as Romney looks to be Dole or McCain without the war hero story.
Time for the GOP to stop squandering money, effort, and emotion on the nomination. Romney is clearly ahead; Santorum is sounding more desperate, less effective with each primary. Time to pick a VP; my suggestion would be Marco Rubio not only to attact Hispanic voters, but because of Sen Rubio’s patriotism and magnetism.
Here in New Jersey a few years ago, GOP “leaders” convinced Bob Franks, a front-runner for the US Senate, to challenge Bret Schundler, a likely election-winner, for the Republican Gubernatorial nomination. The last-minute challange turned bitter, wasted much campaign money, had Republicans tearing at each other’s throats…and assured the election of Jimmy McGreavey…and the eventual embarassment he brough to our state.
The GOP has to stop the nonsense, select or candidates, build our platform and go after Obama and Biden. Stick to issues, make this election about their failed administration and take back our country!
The article has Obama ahead in Virginia, the last election had the entire state go Republican for the state legislature and every single candidate for a state office that was brave enough to appear with Obama during the campaign…LOST AND LOST BIG. In the southwestern part of the state a 30 yr sometimes never had a rival…was defeated, Rick Boucher and he ran against the Obama record. The governor has a approval rating 80%, the dem candidate Kaine is behind ex-Senator Allen in the polls….DO NOT BELIEVE THE POLLS THERE, VIRGINIA IS GOING REPUBLICAN…BOOK IT DANNO
The only question left is whether Romney will be able to do as well as McCain did. At least McCain had guts.
If a miracle happens and gas goes to $7 a gallon or a shooting war breaks out that Zero isn’t able to deflect, it could happen.
But a victory? You’ld have to be Ann Coulter to believe that.
Many polls show exactly what the pollster wants them to show. This is especially true when polls like Reuters, Pew and CNN grossly oversample Democrats. (Read the very fine demographic print.) No wonder the double-digit Obama leads portending a landslide. Exit polls from 2010 were 35% D/ 35% R/ 30% I. Rasmussen comes closest to that model.
Also, likely voter (LV) polls are more predictive than registered voter (RV) ones. LV polls require much more effort; lazy pollsters need not apply.
My hunch is that some of these polls are designed to discourage the opposition and inflate the pollster’s ideological base.
Polls are almost meaningless this far out.
Although there are a lot of people who follow all of this clsely, the majority of voters don’t really start thinking about the election until after Labor Day. The numbers right now aren’t too good, but I wouldn’t put much stock in polling figures until after the conventions.
Having said that, this article points out a huge mistake McCain made in 2008. McCain won the Republican nomination while Obama and Clinton were still slugging it out. Instead of using that advantage to build a campaign organization, McCain seemed to go to sleep. I remember seeing a volunteer from New Hampshire begging McCain to gete off his duff and get an prganization going in her state. McCain did next to nothing and Obama won New Hampshire.
I have said a lot of negative things about Romney (and I reserve the right to say more), but I have never thought he was a fool. If he can build a grassroots organization he can win the important states. If he relies on money he’s doomed. Romney will have millions at his dsiposal. Obama will have a billion.
When Santorum decides to end his campaign, perhaps he can do the party a favor and teach Mitt how to build grassroots support. Santorum emerged from Iowa a surprise winner (eventually) through retail politics. Santorum knows how to run against candidates with more money than he has. Romney might need lessons in that
Keep remembering that Obama was elected by only 30% of registered voters. There was a 58% turnout and of the people who actually voted, 52% voted for Obama. Multiply 0.58 and 0.52 and you get 0.30. Just 30% of registered voters saddled us with Obama. Forget about the polls and just vote. He has not gained followers.