There’s a new poll out tonight from NBC/Marist with a lot of new data on the GOP primary race. But there’s one bit of data buried down deep in the results that caught TPM Reader GL’s eye. And it’s quite an eye-popper.
At this moment, according to this poll, President Obama is beating both Gingrich and Romney … in South Carolina. Right, that’s well-known bellwether South Carolina, home of John C. Calhoun, Strom Thurmond and a lot of other worthies but not many statewide Democrats in recent years.
The same pollster polled Mitt v. Obama back in October and had Romney by +6. Now he’s at -3 — a 9 point move. Not good for Mitt.
For obvious reasons, they didn’t even test Gingrich back then. (In the same poll, Obama beats both handily in Florida.)
No, I do not expect President Obama to be committing a lot of resources to the South Carolina race. Nor do I expect him to win there. But these are not good numbers for the GOP with a supposedly lukewarm popularity president and near catastrophic levels of unemployment.
