The Des Moines Register poll, in an unusual announcement, revealed that Santorum was much stronger in interviews that were conducted on the final two days of the four-day survey period than in the first two days. Santorum placed second to Romney in that later period. The overall results were Romney at 24%, Paul at 22%, and Santorum at 15%. But in the final two days, Romney was at 24%, Paul was down to 18%, and Santorum was at 21%.Romney is Mr. Twenty-Five Percent.
This is really bad news for the GOP establishment. While Romney seems competent in fighting off challengers (over and over again), he doesn't seem to be gaining any support from this. All the talk of "inevitability" sure doesn't help him much.
Yeah, yeah - it's just Iowa, small state, who cares. Repeat that for New Hampshire, because a lot of Romney's support there is nothing more than name recognition from his time as Massachusetts Governor.
My take is that Republican voters do not like him much, even if he won't take "no" for an answer. This will be a long, long slog, and candidate endorsements will be significant if and when they happen.
10 comments:
My thoughts:
Only in a state like Massachusetts could Romney be called a Republican. If he wins the nomination, Obama gets reelected.
Perry is too much of a religious conservative. America wants a president, not a preacher. If Perry wins the nomination, Obama gets reelected.
Cain is DOA, and because he won't support never ending war and international meddling in the affairs of other nations, Paul will never get the nomination.
Gingrich is all talk, and will not be able to get the nomination, either.
No, I think we need to be ready for 4 more years of Obama.
If Romney wins the Republican nomination, WE DESERVE four more years of the Democrats. If that's all the Republicans have to offer, they're done.
I will not vote for Romney.
Concur, and also agree with ASM! I won't vote for him either!
Great post. Once again conservatives are having the battlespace shaped for them by the opposition and the media (one and the same really). True conservatives simply aren't allowed to appear as viable leaders.
Nobody is appealing on the rep side so no one can gain any ground. When some of the lower tier candidates get out of the race the leaders will make some progress. But come on people, I know we don't have a good choice but a stay at home vote is a vote for Obama. Do you want to be a vote for Obama?
@ Swamp Dog: If Romney wins the nomination, I will vote for Obama.
If Perry or Gingrich win, I withhold my vote. I am not falling for the "vote Republican because we suck less than the Democrats" ever again.
Either they shape up and begin to be the candidates I can get behind, or they never get another vote from me. How can we ever expect them to change, if we keep voting for them?
Do not fall for any of the "you have a duty to vote" BS.
if it is not in your interest to vote for one of them, then spoil your ballot paper with "none of them"
Duty implies that you suffer, for someone else to gain at your expense,
Do not give them the fiction of "a mandate" to justify their theiving, deception and murdering.
I'm voting for Ron Paul in the Ohio primary.
If every word GOP laundry honks like Ace of Spades are saying about Paul is true -- I'm voting for Ron Paul.
If it turned out he wrote Every. Last. Word. of those newsletters himself, and that he not only believed them, but triple dog dare believed them, I'd still vote for him. I'd disagree vehemently on those issues, but I'd still vote for him.
Because everyone else running is that much worse. (And in any case, it's far more likely that Ron Paul is protecting a friend, Lew Rockwell, than that he wrote them himself.) I could maybe vote for Perry. Maybe. If Slick Willard or Noot Buonaparte is the nominee, I will either vote for Obama (Turn it up to 11 in '12!(tm))), or write in Ron Paul.
I think that 25% is a hard ceiling for Romney. The periodic spikes of other candidates is the desperate casting about by the Republican electorate for a suitable non-Romney.
I feel that the general run of Republicans is uncomfortable with Romney because, well, he's a squish and tool of the bankers.
They are looking everywhere but at Ron Paul because Ron Paul makes them uncomfortable in a different way. His positions on drugs and foreign policy are not the normal run for a Republican, hence the hesitation. But he maintains his support, and it slowly grows because he is the only candidate in either party that has an effing clue on the most important issues - the economic.
There will come a time when the Republican base will decide whether they can accept the differences for the economic sanity. Or they'll plunge headlong into the Abyss because some douchecanoe mouths comforting platitudes about controlling drugs and fighting terror that they can accept.
Meh. If last election is any indication the candidate will be all but chosen by the time the circus gets to North Carolina.
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