By Dave Andrusko
And then there were five…for now. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney today as Huntsman took himself out of the race hours before the first debate in the pivotal state of South Carolina.
“I believe it is now time for our party to unite around the candidate best equipped to defeat Barack Obama,” Huntsman told supporters. “Despite our differences and the space between us on some issues, I believe that candidate is Gov. Mitt Romney.”
Huntsman’s departure leaves Romney, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, Rep. Ron Paul, former Senator Rick Santorum, and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
Huntsman finished third in New Hampshire, after skipping the Iowa caucuses. Looking for a bounce that never appeared, he ranked no higher than 5% in any South Carolina poll.
The latest poll, Insider Advantage, showed Romney with an eleven point lead over Gingrich in South Carolina: 32% to 21%. Next in line are Paul (14%) and Santorum (13%) with Perry completing the field with 5%. Real Clear Politics cumulative average of three polls (Insider, PPP, and Rasmussen) has Romney up 7.7%.
Appearing on Fox News Monday Republican strategist Karl Rove predicted Huntsman’s backing would produce “not a lot of change, but when you’re in these things and you’re measuring the diff between a single digit victory for Romney in South Carolina and a double digit victory for Romney in South Carolina, it could be important.”
In the national polls, Romney’s stock continues to shoot up among likely Republican primary voters. The latest, today, is from Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. He now has the support of 40% of GOP primary voters, a whopping 25 point lead over Santorum (whose numbers have “nearly quadrupled in the last month”). One point behind Santorum is Gingrich at 14%, then Paul at 13%, and Perry at 6%.
As is increasingly the case, the issue of electability played a large role. “And by a wide margin Romney is seen as the one with the best chance of beating Obama: 63 percent say he’s the candidate most likely to do it,” writes Fox News’ Dana Blanton. “That’s seven times as many as say Gingrich (9 percent).”
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