Fresh off his wins in the Arizona and Michigan primaries on Tuesday and enjoying a comfortable lead over his rivals for the GOP nomination, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney turned his fire back toward President Barack Obama on Thursday.
While he had been behind Rick Santorum in the national polls, a national poll unveiled on Thursday by Rasmussen Reports finds Romney has recaptured a solid lead.
The poll of likely primary votes has Romney taking 40 percent and Santorum in second with 24 percent. This is Romneys largest lead in a Rasmussen Reports poll this election cycle and a dramatic change from their poll taken two weeks ago after Santorum won contests in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. Santorum took 39 percent in that poll while Romney placed second with 27 percent.
Newt Gingrich takes third in the new poll with 16 percent followed by Ron Paul with 12 percent, while 2 percent back other candidates and 6 percent remain undecided.
The poll of 1,000 likely Republican primary voters was taken on Feb. 29 and had a margin of error of +/- 3 percent.
While he is behind Santorum in some of the states up for grabs on Tuesday -- such as Ohio, Oklahoma and Tennessee -- and is trailing Newt Gingrich in Georgia, Romney turned his focus on Obama on Thursday, launching a number of attacks against the Democrat incumbent. Romney had engaged in attacks on Santorum in Michigan during that tight primary contest.
Romney took to the pages of the Boston Herald as he attempted to highlight differences with Obama on taxes in an op-ed published on Thursday.
As governor of Massachusetts, I cut taxes 19 times, eliminated a $3 billion deficit, and by the end of my term left the commonwealth with a $2 billion rainy-day fund and a 4.7 percent unemployment rate --a level that hasnt been seen in years, Romney wrote. I can do the same thing for our country. We dont need to dump tea in Boston Harbor to make our point because, having won the American Revolution, we are a democracy, and we can vote Barack Obama out of office.
With Obama in New Hampshire on Thursday to focus on energy, Romney, at an event in North Dakota, also weighed in on the issue, noting that gas prices have increased under the Democratic president and noting that many families pay more for energy than they do in income taxes.
Energy is not just an industry, it is the lifeblood of our economy, said Romney. An affordable, reliable supply of energy is crucial to the bottom line of every business and every family.
President Obama has achieved his goal of making energy more expensive in this country, Romney added. We must abandon his course of restricting supply, increasing regulation, and hoping for miraculous new technologies to save the day. Instead, we should take advantage of the enormous reserves of oil, coal, and natural gas; the potential of nuclear; and the innovation of our private sector; which will power this nation for the century to come.
Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Romney, was more direct in attacking Obama on energy.
In 2008, Barack Obama promised he would solve our nations energy crisis and lower gas prices once and for all. Four years later, with record gas prices and an economy struggling for growth, were still waiting for him to deliver, Saul said. Americans deserve a president who can deliver real energy solutions and pro-growth policies, not more empty rhetoric and broken promises.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
