Posted by Chris Cillizza

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is the undisputed frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination even as he continues to endure whispers that he is simply too moderate to win over a majority of the GOP.

Exit polling from Romney’s 16-point victory in New Hampshire tells a very different story, however.

Among the 49 percent of primary participants who identified themselves as Republicans — registered independents are also allowed to participate in the New Hampshire vote — Romney won 49 percent of their votes as compared to 15 percent for Texas Rep. Ron Paul, 13 percent for former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum 12 percent for former House Speaker Newt Gingric h and 10 percent for former Utah governor Jon Huntsman.

Romney’s 49 percent is the highest mark among self-identified Republicans for any presidential candidate since New Hampshire moved its primary forward in the calendar.

Here’s a look at how Romney stacks up historically:

That Romney overperformed even Reagan among self-identified Republicans is somewhat eye-opening, particularly considering that the Gipper won the 1980 New Hampshire primary with 50 percent statewide — 11 points better than Romney did earlier this week.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/mitt-romney-doesnt-have-a-republican-problem/2012/01/13/gIQAIls9vP_blog.html?wpisrc=nl_pmpolitics

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Mitt Romney, who just a month ago had hoped to seal the GOP presidential nomination with Florida’s primary on Jan. 31, tells POLITICO that he now foresees an epic fight with Newt Gingrich that could last through the California primary on June 5.

Asked if the former House speaker is the front-runner, Romney replied bluntly: “He is right now.”

Romney made it clear that he would rather lose than make incendiary charges about Gingrich that could help President Barack Obama in the general election. And the former Massachusetts governor said the nomination “is not going to be decided in just a couple of contests” and “could go for months and months.”

“You see how dramatically the numbers have moved and how quickly they have over the last year?” he replied Monday during a video interview at a grubby French-Canadian diner, Chez Vachon, a storied campaign stop that has hosted George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

“It’s a very fluid electorate. I think I’ll get the nomination. I can’t predict when. … I’ve got — what? — five or six more months to go to make that a reality.”

Romney had clearly learned from his thin-skinned responses in a recent Fox News interview. This time, he kept his cool through extended questioning about why he is suddenly the underdog, and whether he has what GOP voters want.

Doubling down on his strategy of running responsibly when base voters seem to crave bombast, Romney said: “You said that our voters wanted red meat and that they therefore need a person who will give that red meat. I’m saying … that’s not who I am, and that’s not going to be successful in the final analysis. … “If … they want language that’s so incendiary that it really excites them, then some can offer that in a primary. And you can be assured that they’ll lose in the general. Because the people who decide elections, the people in the middle — by the way, people who last time voted for Barack Obama — do not want to have a president elected based on red meat.

“I’m not going to say outrageous things that can be used to hang [a GOP opponent] down the road. … In my view, [primary voters] want someone who is willing to be a responsible leader, that brings America together as opposed to dividing America. … I am what I am. I don’t tend to say outrageous things about other people that I don’t believe in order to win political points.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70298.html#ixzz1gLtyZYuy

Some GOP presidential prospects are eying Rubio as a possible running mate. | Reuters

By SCOTT WONG

SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — It might look like tea party hero Marco Rubio waded into enemy territory with stops in San Francisco and Beverly Hills this week. But rubbing shoulders with a different crowd is the point of the freshman senator’s three-day swing through the Golden State.

The Florida Republican is out to prove he can appeal beyond the activist base, introducing himself to the state’s political and corporate elite, raising cash for his party from some of George W. Bush’s top donors and paying homage to one of Republicans’ most venerable icons — Ronald Reagan.

It’s the second act of a well-orchestrated national rollout that began this spring for Rubio, who insists he has no immediate national ambitions. But if the tea party favorite makes a strong debut and can win over establishment Republicans outside his home state, he could emerge an irresistible choice for the No. 2 spot on the GOP ticket in 2012.

“Two words: vice president,” Jack Pitney, a Claremont McKenna College political science professor, said of Rubio’s visit. “On the one hand, he wants to remain a favorite of the tea party faction. On the other hand, he wants to reassure the party establishment that he isn’t the warm-weather version of Sarah Palin.”

Since his stunning victory last fall, Rubio’s stuck close to the script: He says he’s focusing on his job as U.S. senator and isn’t interested in making a run for the White House.

But his Tuesday night address here at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library — his first major speech outside of Washington or his home state — was rife with symbolism. It cast him as a serious policymaker and fueled already rampant speculation that the young, charismatic senator is the hands-down favorite to win the vice presidential nod.

“Americans here in the 20th century built the richest, most prosperous nation in the history of the world,” Rubio told an enthusiastic crowd of 1,000. “And yet today we have built for ourselves a government that not even the richest and most prosperous nation in the face of the earth can fund or afford to pay for — an extraordinarily tragic accomplishment.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/61931.html#ixzz1VzfsoJQn

EXCERPT ONLY: Could President Obama’s approval rating fall as low as Jimmy Carter’s, hovering just above 30 percent? Undoubtedly it could, with the economic situation deteriorating and consumer confidence plunging. This is a distinctly Carter-esque presidency, with a weak president unable to lead, hugely challenging economic conditions, and declining American power on the world stage. Gallup’s figures have shown an astonishing drop in support for Barack Obama in the past eight weeks, which could well be accelerated over the course of the next few months, not least with media attention heavily focused on the Republican presidential race as well as the dire state of the economy.

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