I'm still here, Mitt, and no one likes you any better this week.
The new
NBC/Marist poll (MoE plus/minus 5.5) says Mitt Romney's ahead, but...
But a day after Monday night’s Republican debate – where Gingrich’s performance was considered strong and Romney’s uneven – the poll also shows the former speaker gaining considerable ground on the GOP frontrunner.
Overall in the two-day survey – conducted Monday and Tuesday – Romney gets the support of 34 percent of likely Republican primary voters in South Carolina, including those who are undecided but leaning toward a candidate...
On Monday before the debate, Romney led Gingrich in the poll by 15 points, 37 percent to 22 percent. But on Tuesday, that advantage narrowed to just five points, 31 percent to 26 percent.
“The numbers on Tuesday were very different than the numbers on Monday,” says Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, which conducted the survey.
Other numbers suggest Bain attacks aren't working in conservative South Carolina, but something is, because Romney's slipping.
Sixty-one percent of GOP primary voters – as well as 42 percent of all registered voters in the Palmetto State – agree with the statement that investment firms like Bain help the U.S. economy. And they agree that while some companies fail or are restructured, others succeed and that’s how the free market works.
But that's the wrong question... it's about fairness, not about whether that's how the free market works. If it were, Romney would be running away with this thing.
Oh, and PPP has tweeted some interesting preliminary results:
A weak Mitt Romney now has lost Iowa, won only in New Hampshire and is losing steam in South Carolina.
Cue the attack dogs on Gingrich.
see also fladem's diary on the CNN poll, similar topic.