Romney Opens Lead for GOP Nomination
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on June 8th, 2011 4:38 am by HL
Romney Opens Lead for GOP Nomination
A new Quinnipiac poll finds Mitt Romney leads in the race for the Republican nomination with 25%, followed by Sarah Palin at 15%, Herman Cain at 9%, Newt Gingrich and Rep. Ron Paul at 8%, Rep. Michele Bachmann at 6% and Tim Pawlenty at 5%.
Said pollster Peter Brown: “Whether it’s because of the media coverage of his recent formal announcement, or the fact that Donald Trump and Mike Huckabee have dropped out, Gov. Romney has surged ahead of the Republican field. Until now Quinnipiac University’s polls have shown many candidates bunched together in the mid-teens, now he has opened up some daylight on the field and is within six points of the president.”
However, in trial heats against President Obama, Romney still trails by six points, 47% to 41%, while every other candidate trails by double-digits.
Weiner Struggles for Political Survival
Although he pledged to stay and fight, Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) political survival was in question “as the leaders of his own party continued to distance themselves from the disgraced New York lawmaker and as Republicans persisted in calling for his resignation,” the Washington Post reports.
“Weiner became more and more isolated as the fallout settled from his admission a day earlier that he had engaged in sexually explicit exchanges with women he met online. While the means by which he committed his transgressions represent a new frontier for Washington scandal, the questions and challenges ahead of him are as old as controversy itself. Scandals move quickly in the Internet era. Weathering them takes a combination of personal resolve, crisis-management skills and the right political circumstances.”
Howard Kurtz notes “a slow-motion ethics probe could be his lifeline — unless the humiliation proves too great.”
