In my new column, I write about Mitt Romney's rise in general election polling and concurrent slip in primary polling.
These polls suggest we’re seeing the first hard numbers backing up a point pundits have been making for some time — that Romney might have a tougher time winning the GOP primary than the general election.
The reason for that? As always, Romney’s troubles come down to his healthcare program in Massachusetts, which Fox’s Brit Hume described as the “millstone around his neck” because of its similarities to Obama’s.
According to Rasmussen Reports, 53 percent of likely voters favor some sort of repeal of the president’s healthcare program, with many more Republicans disapproving than Democrats and independents.
That, then, would explain why talk of “RomneyCare,” which is what his critics call Massachusetts’s healthcare program, hurts more at the primary, not general-election, level, and would explain the phenomenon we’ve seen with his numbers the past few months.
Running against an incumbent president might be hard, but for Romney, running against his own party is even harder.
