One thing that has remained constant in the ever changing GOP Presidential race is that Mitt Romney is the strongest candidate against Barack Obama...at least until now. PPP's newest national poll finds Romney trailing Obama by 7 points at 49-42, while Santorum trails by only 5 points at 49-44.

This is a new development in the flavor of the month game. Over the previous 6 months when Romney first trailed Michele Bachmann, then Rick Perry, then Herman Cain, then Newt Gingrich in our national polling he still did on average 6 points better than them in our general election tests. Santorum's the first insurgent to challenge Romney on that front as well:

Month	Romney vs. Obama	Flavor of the Month vs. Obama	Romney Electability Edge
July	Tied	Bachmann -7	+7
August	Tied	Perry -6	+6
September	Romney -4	Perry -11	+7
October	Tied	Cain -6	+6
November	Romney -3	Gingrich -6	+3
December	Romney +2	Gingrich -5	+7

Santorum's net favorability is 21 points better than Romney's. Santorum's at -7 (39/46), while Romney is at -28 (29/57). That's mostly because Republicans like Santorum a lot better (+40 at 62/22 to Romney's +2 at 43/41). But Santorum also does a good deal better with independents, coming in at -6 (40/46) to Romney's -23 (32/55). In the head to heads Obama leads Romney by 9 with independents, but has only a 4 point advantage on Santorum with that group.

Ron Paul has nearly matched Romney on the electability front, trailing Obama by 8 points at 49-41. Paul does the best of the Republican candidates with independents, with only a 1 point deficit to Obama. Newt Gingrich has firmly established himself as the Republican who would be the biggest general election disaster, trailing 52-40 with a 19 point deficit among independents.

Why is Obama doing so well? It has a lot to do with this finding: 41% of voters think the economy's getting better to only 31% who think it's getting worse with 27% thinking that it's staying about the same. This is the first time since Obama took office that we've asked a question in this vein on a national poll and found more voters feeling optimistic than pessimstic about the way things are heading.

We also looked at how a couple third party candidate scenarios. Roseanne Barr, who wants to be the Green Party candidate for President, is one of the most hated figures we've ever polled. Only 14% of Americans have a favorable opinion of her to 63% with a negative one. In spite of that she still gets 6% in the general, and her presence in the race chops Obama's lead over Romney from 7 points to only 5 points at 47-42. Could Roseanne end up costing Obama reelection? That sounds like good cable fodder for the rest of the week. (It's highly unlikely she would really end up getting anywhere close to 6% of the vote.)

Gary Johnson gets 7% as the Libertarian candidate. His presence doesn't have much impact on the Obama/Romney dynamic though- the President still leads by 7 at 47-40.

Full results here

Seven reasons for Rick Santorum

Who has won the most states without the benefit of their own money, last election's organization or a billionaire casino sugar daddy?
Who is everybody's second choice when he isn't their first?
Who can get both the Romney people and the Gingrich people, who hate each other, to vote for him?
Who has the best record on immigration?
Who has the best plan for repealing ObamaCare? And is the only GOP candidate who didn't help write or approve legislation which helped spawn this fiasco?
Who has the best plan for expanding the American economy and strengthening American families?
Who is the closest thing we have to the "generic Republican" which polls show consistently beating Obama and is most likely to make the election about Obama's sorry record rather than about himself?

If Santorum can handle the first two or three salvos with a combination of good humor and common sense, he’ll be well on the way to putting an end to both Romney’s Super Pac hate machine, and Romney’s candidacy.

But if Santorum can’t handle them, well, better to know it now than after he’s nominated.

Personally, I hope Santorum’s successful in parrying the inevitable attacks and that Romney finally gets his due for his consistent neglect of Reagan’s 11th Commandment. What goes around does come around...eventually.

That is how Gingrich disappointed me. He couldn’t stay from the toxic flames. He finally fired back in kind thus kicking his own butt. I pray that Santorum can maintain a cheerful good nature and not reply in kind. That is the biggest lesson from Reagan’s primary fight. The biggest problem then is that Romney’s face is going to be in front of people 10 to 1 for Santorum’s face. Romney’s campaign money is pretty close to infinite. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Democrats or Soros would be a huge source if his funds do manage to run low. Romney will also have the advantage of the Democrat Republicans-for-a-day vote.

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