Romney Support Falls Back in States He Won

By Erin McPike
RealClearPolitics
February 7, 2012

Under the original election calendar, the Romney campaign foresaw victories in New Hampshire and Nevada as a firewall protecting the candidate's path to the GOP nomination: Post big wins in both states, use the momentum to get a major win in Florida, and then lock up the whole thing. Nevada ended up moving its nominating contest back to follow the Sunshine State’s, but Romney still posted double-digit victories in all three contests.

And so everything's gone according to plan.

There’s just one problem: After waging warfare on his GOP competitors in each of those elections -- all in swing states that could be critical in a November matchup against President Obama -- Romney has left those contests less popular than when he started campaigning in earnest.

The news Monday in a national Washington Post/ABC News poll made waves: Obama’s approval rating shot up to 50 percent; the president bested Romney in a general election matchup; and he led his likely GOP rival among crucial independent voters.

And so the Romney campaign issued two memos to effectively distract from those findings. The first one, authored by campaign pollster Neil Newhouse, addressed the new survey.

(More here.)