Southern stumbles aside, Mitt Romney bests Santorum in new national poll
A Pew Research poll released Wednesday has some good news and some bad news for Mitt Romney, the day after his third-place finishes in the Alabama and Mississippi primaries.
Washington
A national poll of voters released Wednesday offers mixed news for Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney after his third-place finish Tuesday in Southern primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.
“The headline is that Romney regained his lead over [GOP challenger Rick] Santorum 33 to 24 percent” among Republican and Republican-leaning voters, says Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. Last month, the two GOP candidates were split fairly evenly in the GOP presidential race, Mr. Kohut said, at “28 percent Romney, 30 percent Santorum.”
While Mr. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, is “back on top in this particular national poll,” he “now trails [President] Obama by an ever larger margin” in a theoretical matchup, Kohut said at a Monitor-hosted breakfast for reporters.
In a head-to-head matchup, Mr. Obama topped Romney by 54 to 42 percent, the Pew survey showed. The president has an even bigger lead over Mr. Santorum, a former US senator from Pennsylvania, outpacing him 57 to 39 percent.
