NBC News-Wall Street Journal" Gingrich Leads Romney By 9 Points

By Susan Duclos

MSNBC released their national polling results and found that Newt Gingrich is leading Mitt Romney nationwide among registered Republican primary voters likely to vote in the primaries across the country.

Gingrich leads Romney 37 percent to 28 percent nationally among registered Republicans likely to vote in the primaries; Rick Santorum is in third with 18 percent, and Ron Paul is fourth with 12 percent.

The breathless headline over at MSNBC also includes that Gingrich trails Obama in head-to-head match ups, but I have maintained steadily and multiple times here at Wake up America that head-to-head match ups with Barack Obama have no predictive value until one GOP candidate is chosen.

Barack Obama is one man and the leaning right Independents and conservative voters have multiple choices before them until one candidate is chosen to be the Republican nominee for presidency.

Until one candidate is chosen as the nominee, conservatives do not have the opportunity to coalesce behind that candidate, so until the primaries are over and the delegates are counted at the convention, head-to-heads against Obama make great headlines, but mean absolutely nothing in my mind.

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Kaiser Health: Public 'Twice As Likely' To Be Unfavorable Of Individual Manadate As Likely To Favor It

By Susan Duclos

Via Kaiser Health Tracking Poll -- January 2012:

As for the public's own views of the mandate, the January poll shows that the requirement that everyone obtain health insurance or pay a fine continues to be unpopular. This month's poll finds the public more than twice as likely to have an unfavorable rather than favorable view of the provision (67% to 30%), very much in line with findings of previous Kaiser polls. Reflecting this dislike for a mandate, 54 percent of Americans say the Court should rule the individual mandate unconstitutional, while just 17 percent say they think it should be found constitutional. Roughly mirroring public views on the mandate, 55 percent of the public say they expect the Justices to find the mandate unconstitutional and 29 percent expect the Justices to find it constitutional.

Findings (.pdf)

Chartpack (.pdf)

Toplines (.pdf)


Nancy Pelosi famously stated "We have to pass the bill so you can find out what is in it."

Well, almost two years ago, Democrats, who controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate, shoved it through and "passed the bill' without Republican support and against the majority of Americans who opposed it. Barack Obama signed it into law.

The public has seen "what is in it" and according to RCP averages, the plurality of Americans are still opposed to Obamacare as a whole, by a 11.6 percent margin.

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Poll Shows Gingrich Surging Again Nationally

By Susan Duclos

In a new Rasmussen poll of likely Republican primary voters nationwide has Mitt Romney with 30 percent, Newt Gingrich with 27 percent, Rick Santorum 15 percent, Ron Paul 13 percent and Rick Perry with 4 percent.

Via Rasmussen:

But the story in the new numbers, taken Tuesday night, is Gingrich’s jump 11 points from 16% two weeks ago. Romney’s support is essentially unchanged from 29% at that time, while Santorum is down six points from 21%. Paul’s and Perry’s support is also unchanged. Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman earned four percent (4%) of the vote at the start of the month but dropped out of the race this week. This suggests that many voters are still looking for an alternative to Romney and currently see Gingrich as that candidate.

Among Republican primary voters nationwide, 34% think Romney is the GOP candidate who would do a better job managing the economy, but almost as many (29%) feel Gingrich would do the better job. Paul’s a distant third at 14%. When it comes to national security and defense, Gingrich is the clear leader: 43% think he would do a better job versus 18% who say the same of Romney.

During this contentious primary season we have seen one candidate after another surge ahead, then level out in support, but until this latest surge for Gingrich, we have not seen a candidate surge twice.

With the South Carolina primaries just days away, the unprecedented standing ovation for Newt Gingrich, along with another impressive debate performance for him, two nights ago at the Republican debate in Myrtle Beach, SC., hosted by Fox News Channel and The Wall Street Journal, may have given Gingrich a well timed bounce, not only in the national polls but in time for the primary voters of South Carolina to take a second hard look at Gingrich before casting their vote on Saturday.

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South Carolina Poll: Romney 23%, Gingrich 21%

By Susan Duclos

Mitt Romney, despite winning the first two caucus/primaries, very narrowly in Iowa and easily in New Hampshire, has slipped in the South Carolina polls, reports The Hill:

Romney is the favorite of 23 percent of South Carolina voters, narrowly edging Newt Gingrich's 21 percent, according to the latest poll from Insider Advantage. Rick Santorum pulls 14 percent of Palmetto state voters, while Ron Paul rounds out the top four with 13 percent. Jon Huntsman's seven percent and Rick Perry's five percent trail the pack.

The numbers could indicate that Gingrich's aggressive strategy - which has included controversial attacks on Mitt Romney's business and abortion records - is gaining him traction by hurting the GOP frontrunner.

This is the first poll in South Carolina that shows this type of slippage for Romney and gain for Gingrich and one poll does not a pattern make, but it is something to watch heading into the January 21, 2012 South Carolina primaries.

South Carolina is known for it's down and dirty, bare-knuckles politics, so this next week of campaign ads, SuperPAC ads and political rhetoric should be entertaining to say the least.

The first punches have already been thrown.....

Armageddon!!!!

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Two-to-One, Americans Fear Obama Being Reelected

By Susan Duclos

US News, Washington Whispers reports on a new Synovate eNation Internet poll was conducted December 29-January 2 and found that double the amount of Americans fear Barack Obama being reelected than those that fear he won't be.

"As we enter the presidential election year of 2012, what potential news event do you fear the most?"

President Obama wins reelection 33%

Taxes will increase 31%

Iran will get a nuclear weapon 16%

Obama will lose reelection 16%

North Korea will attack South Korea 4%

The two top fears expressed by poll respondents work against Barack Obama since he and his party faithful are consistently talking about and/or trying to raise taxes in some form or another.

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Santorum's Iowa Surprise Bounces Him Into Second Place Nationally

By Susan Duclos

Just days after Rick Santorum surprised the country by taking second place in the Iowa caucuses behind Romney who won by only eight votes, Rasmussen finds he has bounced right into second place nationally.

Former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, coming off his photo finish with Mitt Romney in the Iowa caucuses, is now in second place among Republican voters in the race for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey, taken the night after the caucuses, shows Romney again in first place with support from 29% of Likely Republican Primary Voters, followed by Santorum with 21%.

Many wondered if the Santorum surge would start and end in Iowa.

Guess not.

For those that are completely anti-Romney, they might want to take a look second look at Santorum.

Santourm might also want to think about that Gingrich/Santorum alliance.

I am still hoping Perry does well in South Carolina because I think jobs and economy are priorities.

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Gallup: Americans Far More Concerned About Big Government Than Big Business

By Susan Duclos

• • In your opinion, which of the following will be the biggest threat to the country in the future... big business, big labor, or big government?


One chart says it all.

(Click image to enlarge)

Gallup


64 percent believe big government, which has gotten far bigger over the last three years, especially with Obamacare being passed by Obama and Democrats when they controlled the House of Representatives, Senate and the White House, is a bigger threat to the country in the future.

Only 26 percent feel big business in the bigger threat and just 8 percent said big labor.

More concerning to Democratic leaders and Obama should be the Gallup finding a little farther down in the report.

While top Democratic leaders and Obama continue to try to grow big government bigger, Democratic voters are starting to fear big government more and more.

Since 2009, there has been a 16 percentage point increase in Democrats believing "big government is the biggest threat to the nation." In 2009 that number was only 32 percent, now it is 48 percent.

Gallup's bottom line:

Americans' concerns about the threat of big government are near record-high levels. The Occupy Wall Street movement, focused on "fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations," has drawn much attention and a large following. Still, the majority of Americans do not view big business as the greatest threat to the country when asked to choose among big business, big government, and big labor. In fact, Americans' concerns about big business have declined significantly since 2009.

Over the last few decades Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been guilty of expanding government but in the 2010 midterm elections, GOP politicians were handed control of the House of Representatives and given a net gain in Senate seats, because they campaigned and promised to spend less, fight tax increases, and limit big government expansions.

They have fought to keep those promises in the last year and Conservative voters have held their feet to the fire to make sure they continue to do so.

Democratic leaders, led by Obama, continue to try to raise taxes and push for more stimulus aka government spending or "investment", showing they did not learn the lesson of the 2010 midterms or simply chose to ignore it.

The White House has raised the stakes in the negotiations over the renewal of $200bn in stimulus measures for the US economy, seeking to link their fate to separate legislation to fund the government.

The move by Barack Obama, the president, marks a high-risk attempt to corral Republicans into a compromise in Washington’s end-of-year fiscal warfare, since it increases the odds that some federal agencies could shut down as early as Saturday.

The White House has been pressing Congress for months to pass an extension of payroll tax cuts and emergency jobless benefits that are due to expire at the end of the month, on the grounds that if they lapsed it would do serious damage to the US economy.

Republicans have accepted the need to preserve these forms of stimulus in 2012. But the bill they proposed – and will be voting on Tuesday in the House of Representatives – does so in a way that the White House and many congressional Democrats reject. It pays for the measures by curbing the pay of federal workers, rather than imposing higher taxes on wealthy Americans as Democrats want. It also includes several other provisions – primarily an expedited approval process for the controversial Keystone XL pipeline project – that Democrats are opposed to.

The Obama experiment has failed. It is time for Democratic lawmakers to start listening to the people they are supposed to be representing and stop pushing for bigger government or they risk losing control of the Senate and the White House in November 2012.

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