Wall Street Willie Still Losing Ground

Willard Mitt Romney (aka Wall Street Willie) had hoped than his ability to squeak out wins in Maine and in the CPAC straw poll would stop the bleeding his campaign has experienced since being trounced in three states last week, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Yesterday I posted a Public Policy Polling survey that showed Santorum had assumed a nationwide lead over Romney. Now the Gallup Daily Tracking Poll shows Santorum within two points of Romney (within the margin of error), and that poll has shown steady gains for Santorum since his three-state win. Another day or two and Santorum might take the lead in Gallup also.

But as bad as that is for Romney, two other polls show something even worse -- he has lost his lead in Michigan. Ever since the campaign started, it has been assumed by most political pundits that Romney had Michigan in the bag. After all, he grew up there, and his father was the governor of that state -- and most assumed he would be treated as a "home town" boy there. But that is not happening, and only about 26% of Michigan Republicans consider him to be a Michigander. Here are the numbers from the two latest Michigan polls:

PUBLIC POLICY POLLING
Rick Santorum...............39%
Mitt Romney...............24%
Ron Paul...............12%
Newt Gingrich...............11%

AMERICAN RESEARCH GROUP POLL
Rick Santorum...............33%
Mitt Romney...............27%
Newt Gingrich...............21%
Ron Paul...............12%
Other/undecided...............7%

It's still two weeks before the Republicans in Michigan go to the polls on February 28th, and Romney could stage a comeback -- he certainly has enough Wall Street money to try. But he is no longer the shoo-in he once was. Michigan is in play, and that's bad news for Wall Street Willie.