A fight to the death may not be what Republicans want to see in the primary race, and Newt Gingrich promised to cling to the bitter end: the convention.
“I think Romney’s got a very real challenge in trying to get a majority at the convention. We will go all the way to the convention,” Gingrich threatened on Sunday. “I believe the Republican Party will not nominate a pro-abortion, pro-gun control, pro-tax increase moderate from Massachusetts.”
But, a new Pew Research poll suggests that’s the last thing voters want to hear. Earlier this month, 44% of Republican-leaning voters rated the GOP candidates as only fair to poor. Today, 52% feel that way. So the more they get to know the pool of candidates, the more dissatisfied they become as the race drags on — they’re kinda over it.
Sarah Palin has been very vocal about encouraging a long vetting process. In a recent Facebook post, she accused the GOP establishment of “Stalin-esque” and “cannibal” tactics for trying to speed up the process. She wrote, “there are serious concerns about [Romney’s] record and whether as a politician he consistently applied conservative principles and how this impacts the agenda moving forward. The questions need answers now. That is why this primary should not be rushed to an end. We need to vet this.”
Mitt Romney is on track to win the Florida primary on Tuesday. A new NBC/Marist poll shows the former Massachusetts governor leading the former speaker by 15 points, 42 percent to 27 percent.
Sarah Muller