Florida: Romney better than Gingrich in general

Yesterday brought a flood of good news for Newt Gingrich in Florida's GOP primary, but today shows he still performs worse than Mitt Romney against the President.

Public Policy Polling survey of Florida's General Election:

a. Barack Obama 50% Newt Gingrich 44%

b. Barack Obama 45% Mitt Romney 44%

As for independents, Romney leads Obama by 7%, while Newt loses by 1%.

Florida is nearly mandatory for the GOP to take in 2012 and most suggest Romney would carry it.

Here's a side-thought. Gingrich's slam on Paul Ryan's health care reforms hurt him badly earlier this year, but in a general election, Newt's position is much more in the mainstream.

And, of course, Mitt Romney played things toward the middle when he warned seniors in the state that Rick Perry wanted to "kill Social Security" (a demonstrably false claim from Romney).