PPP: Santorum leads Romney by 15-points in Michigan (one of Mitten's home states)

[WI_DEM]

(but watch big bucks Mittens throw millions into Michigan just as he did in Florida):

Rick Santorum's taken a large lead in Michigan's upcoming Republican primary. He's at 39% to 24% for Mitt Romney, 12% for Ron Paul, and 11% for Newt Gingrich.

Santorum's rise is attributable to two major factors: his own personal popularity (a stellar 67/23 favorability) and GOP voters increasingly souring on Gingrich. Santorum's becoming something closer and closer to a consensus conservative candidate as Gingrich bleeds support.

Santorum's winning an outright majority of the Tea Party vote with 53% to 22% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich. He comes close to one with Evangelicals as well at 48% to 20% for Romney and 12% for Gingrich. And he cracks the 50% line with voters identifying as 'very conservative' at 51% to 20% for Romney and 10% for Gingrich.

Michigan is perceived as a state where Romney really has a home field advantage, but only 26% of primary voters actually consider him to be a Michigander while 62% do not. Only 39% have a favorable opinion of George Romney with a 46% plurality having no opinion about him. Romney really doesn't have some great reservoir of goodwill in Michigan to fall back on. Only 49% of voters have a favorable opinion of him to 39% with a negative one. That's down a net 28 points from our last poll of Michigan in July when he was at +38 (61/23).

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2012/02/santorum-moves-ahead-in-michigan.html#tp

[catbyte]

1. Ugh.

What is happening to this country? I honestly didn't realize there were so many religious nuts who want to reduce us women to being barefoot and pregnant again. I thought we had hashed all this out in the 1970's. Good luck to all those men out there who will be expected to support their families on just his income. Although, I always wanted to be like Donna Reed & June Cleaver...Now where did I put my pearls?

And SANTORUM?!? Come on, people. That clip of him on the Senate floor with all those other senators "laying hands" on him while he was praying over Schiavo still gives me the creeps. It really makes me ill.

Sigh,

Diane
Anishinaabe and NOT pregnant in MI

[Arkana]

3. There's not--they're just all voting in the GOP primaries.

Think about the voters that cast ballots in the primaries for the GOP. They're nutjobs. All of them. Why is it such a stretch that they'd cast ballots for the biggest nutjob in the bunch?

[Motown_Johnny]

4. I plan on voting for Santorum and I hope you do too

Rmoney losing Michigan would be a serious blow to his candidacy. He has tons of money and the more we can get him to spend in the primary the less he will have later.

It will also scare some donors away since he is looking less and less like a sure thing for the (R)s.


I consider this payback for Rush's 2008 "Operation Chaos". This is how they want to play it so this is how it should be played.

This might even help push them into closed primaries which will skew their nomination process even more. Even now they need to talk like far right wing nuts to have a shot. If more primaries are closed then the moderate vote is reduced and the wing nuttery deepens.


Vote Santorum! The enemy of my enemy is my friend, until he is my enemy too.

[Aerows]

8. It also forces him to get nastier

And as long as they are beating up each other, it's great for Democrats. Never interrupt your enemy when he's making a mistake

[SadPanda]

12. Reality is it's about 35% of a hardcore religious Republican base.

And a weak Republican field. The Republican Party has completely lost its mind though. Obama literally drove them crazy.

[tclambert]

15. I'm always amazed they want to rehash arguments from the 1930s.

They really want to go back to the wonderful policies of the Hoover era that led to the Great Depression, even though Bush just tried that and it led to the Great Recession. And they want to unravel Social Security. And destroy unions. And eliminate the income tax (at least for rich "job creators" who lay off more people than they hire). The Supreme Court made the Roe v. Wade decision in the 1970s and they not only want to undo that but undo the invention of The Pill.

It's just a matter of time before they call for re-instituting slavery. In Republican lingo, they would call it an "enhanced work-life arrangement."

[Rambis]

2. Shouldn't Mittens be winning in 12 states?

I think he has 12 homes in 12 different states no?

[KamaAina]

6. I only count five

MA, NH, UT, CA, MI.

[Rambis]

7. Wait, wait he lives in his son's basement

silly me

[Sheepshank]

5. Wouldn't it be an interesting thing to see the GNC try and justify....

Santorum, winning so many states, but Mitt getting the nomination anyway?

As if they could explain away that the GOP knew the will of their people, better than the people themselves knew it?

[totodeinhere]

9. I don't get your point.

If Santorum wins a lot of staes then he might get the nomination. It all depends on who gets a majority of delegates. If Santorum wins enough states to get over the top then he's their guy. And if that happens I couldn't be happier. Obama would beat him in a landslide.

[Sheepshank]

11. The assumption on my part is that Delegates have already been given marching orders

to Get Romney on the Presidential Ballot, and they are to ignore the very many constituents that may have voted for someone else.

[totodeinhere]

14. In most states delegates are required to honor the results of the

caucuses and primaries on the first ballot unless the candidate releases them.

[Sheepshank]

18. I don't think so...otherwise why have delegates and why not just use the voters results?

It would appear, the delegates just take cues from the votes

These delegates are supposed to take their cue from the voters who cast ballots during their states' primaries and caucuses, though each party's rules make it possible for multiple rounds of balloting and horse trading if no candidate is able to gain a majority on the first ballot. But since 1976, no major party convention has opened with the identity of the nominee in question.
<snip>
During the primary process, "the party is choosing their candidates, which is very different from the public choosing a candidate," says Norman Ornstein, an expert on U.S. politics at the American Enterprise Institute think tank. The goal is to "narrow it down to the candidates who most represent the party, and who have the greatest chance of winning," says Ornstein. At least, he says, "That's the theory. It doesn't always work that way."

Each state make various decisions as to how they hold or re-vote in primaries. There is wiggle room for sure.

[SadPanda]

13. Well, they can't justify unless Mitt wins the right number of delegates...

Really his ability to capture the nomination will come down to Super Tuesday. Keep in mind the Republicans are busy spending tens of millions of dollars on a nominating infight. The Obama campaign and all of the progressive organizations are basically sitting back and saving every dollar. Imagine if the Republicans take their fight all the way to convention in late September? And we get the 2nd convention this time around!

[Iliyah]

10. Ron Paul is going to sell his

delegates to Romney for a hefty price and I'm not talking about money.

The religious right in my opinion have lost their way. From the teachings of Jesus Christ, what they are saying and physically doing is totally against his teaching.

These wackos are hurting the American people, ie, civil rights, women rights, worker rights, voter rights all in the name of greed and greed is one the deadly sins.

[INdemo]

16. Guess I dont understand politics even though

I have followed elections since 1960 with JFK and Nixon..and can actually remember the conventions of 1952...And
I dont understand how a failed Senator and failed Senatorial candidate can be the favorite going into a major state Repuke Presidential primary.
The candidates the Repukes have to offer in my way of thinking could not win a county council seat in my area but then I've never taken the time to figure out how Repukes think....
...noticed Santorum didnt get on the ballot in Indiana though not enough signatures...

[TxVietVet]

17. Willard Rmoney wanted the Auto Industry FAIL.

Give the Willard his due. Vote him down.