A new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows Newt Gingrich strong in the primary and weak in the general election.
1. Newt Gingrich 37%
2. Mitt Romney 28%
3. Rick Santorum 18%
4. Ron Paul 12%
General election:
a. Barack Obama 49% Mitt Romney 43%
b. Barack Obama 53% Rick Santorum 38%
c. Barack Obama 55% Newt Gingrich 37%
Now, have you ever heard of a gender gap? Newt Gingrich is breathing even more life into it -- women favor Obama, 69%-21%, and independents break for Obama by 24%.
Those numbers are overwhelming, and also outliers, considering other national polling shows a much closer race (I can't buy, for example, Newt only getting 21% of women, and I certainly can't see Romney only pulling in 38% vs. Obama).
Nevertheless, the essential point remains that Romney is far more competitive with women, independents, and just about everyone than Gingrich against Obama.
The pollster, Peter Hart, says:
"Gingrich is Goldwater.... In the general election, Gingrich not only takes down his ship, he takes down the whole flotilla."
As for the primary, it'll be interesting to see if Gingrich's lead holds up after Tuesday's Florida primary, which is looking more and more like a Romney win.
