Mitt Romney demonstrates his enthusiasm ceiling (Scott Audette/Reuters)
Gallup on Jan. 15:
Mitt Romney: 37
Rick Santorum: 14
Newt Gingrich: 13
Ron Paul: 12
All others/undecided/none: 24
And Gallup today:
Mitt Romney: 39 (+2)
Rick Santorum: 27 (+13)
Newt Gingrich: 12 (-1)
Ron Paul: 10 (-2)
All others/undecided/none: 12 (-12)
Obviously Mitt Romney is well-positioned to grind out a primary victory, but make no mistake, there is not a swelling of enthusiasm for him among Republicans. He's just wearing down his opponents with millions of dollars in attack ads.
CNN's polling shows the same thing. Here are their numbers from Jan. 11 and 12:
Mitt Romney: 34
Newt Gingrich: 18
Rick Santorum: 15
Ron Paul: 15
All others/undecided/none: 19
And their numbers from today:
Mitt Romney: 36 (+2)
Rick Santorum: 26 (+11)
Ron Paul: 17 (+2)
Newt Gingrich: 15 (-3)
All others/undecided/none: 5 (-14)
Those aren't the kind of numbers you'd expect from a party enthusiastic about its nominee. They're the kind of numbers you'd expect from a party that might be starting to realize that unless they want to explicitly forfeit the next election, they don't really have any other choice.