QUESTION FOR SANTORUMANIACS: HAVE INDEPENDENTS SOURED ON OBAMA BECAUSE OF HIS STAND ON SOCIAL ISSUES OR COULD IT BE THE ECONOMY?

SUMMER 2011:

The Washington Examiner’s Conn Carroll today calls attention to a nugget buried deep in the report:

Obama’s approval rating has decreased among all six partisan/ideology groups Gallup tracks on a regular basis since January, but it has dropped the most — 10 percentage points, from 40 percent to 30 percent — among pure independents. These are the roughly 14 percent of national adults who neither identify with one of the two major parties nor indicate a leaning. Obama’s approval rating has declined by nearly as much — eight points — among moderate/liberal Republicans, from 29 percent to 21 percent.

NOW:

Bolstered by rising support from independent voters, President Obama has moved out to a 52-44 percent lead over Republican Mitt Romney in the latest national poll by the Pew Research Center for People and the Press. 

Obama was ahead of the former Massachusetts governor by a miniscule 49-47 percent in mid-November, and led Romney by 50-45 percent in January.  In the latest poll, he enjoys a 51-42 percent lead among independents. 

Obama runs ahead of ex-Sen. Rick Santorum, the outspoken social conservative in the GOP race, by a 53-43 percent margin.  The President enjoys his widest lead, at 57-39 percent, over former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

HERE'S WHY:

President Obama’s rising job-approval ratings are the result of a go-it-alone strategy against Congress and a bitter Republican presidential primary, political analysts say. 

In two polls last week, Mr. Obama’s approval ratings reached the critical 50 percent mark sought by all incumbents. Gallup’s daily tracking poll has shown slow but steady gains since the president’s disapproval rating peaked at 54 percent in late August, just after contentious debt talks with GOP lawmakers and immediately before he launched his “We Can’t Wait” campaign urging congressional Republicans to approve multibillion-dollar jobs programs and payroll-tax cuts. 

The president’s top advisers “came back from the August recess with a clear, sharp message focusing on the economy, and it’s been extraordinarily effective,” said Democratic strategist Matt Miller. “They capped that with the payroll-tax message. They’ve been relentless on this, and it’s worked.”

SANTORUM DOES NOT HAVE EITHER THE CREDIBILITY OR THE EXPERIENCE OR THE POLICY POSITIONS THAT CAN CONVINCE INDEPENDENTS HE WILL LEAD US ON THE ECONOMIC ISSUES BETTER THAN OBAMA.

IN ADDITION, SANTORUM HAS ALL THE "SOCIAL ISSUE" BAGGAGE THAT SCARES INDEPENDENTS.

MITT HAS THE CREDIBILITY AND THE EXPERIENCE AND THE PLATFORM - AND HE CAN ATTACK OBAMA ON CRONY CAPITALISM. (SANTORUM CAN'T BECAUSE HE IS A BIG EARMARKER WHO GAVE EARMARKS TO CRONIES.)

A VOTE FOR SANTORUM THIS WINTER IS A VOTE FOR OBAMA NEXT FALL.