“Mitt Romney changes positions more often than a pornographic movie queen.”

— Former Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA), in an interview on Morning Joe, to promote his new book, Life Among Cannibals.

A new Franklin & Marshall poll in Pennsylvania finds Rick Santorum barely ahead of Mitt Romney in his home state, 30% to 28%, within the poll’s 4.2% margin of error.

That’s a big change from February, when Santorum held a commanding 15-percentage-point lead over Romney in the poll.

A new ABC News-Washington Post poll finds Mitt Romney trails President Obama by 19 points in popularity. Just 34% hold a favorable opinion of Romney as compared to 53% for Obama.

Meanwhile, Romney’s 50% unfavorable score is higher than Obama ever has received; it’s been exceeded by just one other Republican candidate this year, Newt Gingrich, and by only one top candidate in 28 years, Hillary Clinton in 2008.

A new Quinnipiac poll finds President Obama leading Mitt Romney in three crucial swing states.

Florida: Obama 49%, Romney 42%

Ohio: Obama 47%, Romney 41%

Pennsylvania: Obama 45%, Romney 42%

Said pollster Peter Brown: “President Obama is on a roll in the key swing states. If the election were today, he would carry at least two states. And if history repeats itself, that means he would be re-elected.”

Newt Gingrich “is cutting back his campaign schedule, will lay off about a third of his cash-strapped campaign’s full-time staff, and has replaced his manager as part of what aides are calling a ‘big-choice convention’ strategy,” Politico reports.

Jeff Greenfield compares Newt Gingrich to the Black Knight of Monty Python and the Holy Grail fame.

“As his limbs are progressively hacked off, the knight declares ’tis but a scratch! Then: ‘a flesh wound!’ And finally: ‘Alright, we’ll call it a draw.’ With barely a tenth of the delegates so far allocated, victories in two of 26 contests, and polling at 13 percent in Gallup’s latest survey of GOP voters, Gingrich’s rationale for remaining in the race is, to put it mildly, elusive.”

Meanwhile, a new CNN/Opinion Research poll finds 61% of Republican voters want Gingrich to exit the race.

[Read more…]

A new Pew Research Center poll shows that 55% of people were entirely unaware of a Mitt Romney aide’s Etch-A-Sketch comments last week.

The Fix: “The numbers serve as a reminder — for the umpteenth time — that simply because 100 percent of people who do politics for a living (the Fix included) are closely following a story, it’s no guarantee that the story is penetrating nearly as broadly among the general public.”

A new Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin finds Gov. Scott Walker (R) is locked in a very tight recall race with two potential Democratic challengers, Tom Barrett (D) and Kathleen Falk (D).

Walker edges Barrett, 47% to 45%, and leads Falk 49% to 45%.

Said pollster Charles Franklin: “I don’t think you need the poll to know this is going to be a very close race.”

In a potentially shocking development, Boston Mayor Tom Menino (D) told WBZ-TV that he’s not taking sides in the U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts, potentially signalling his support for Sen. Scott Brown (R) over Elizabeth Warren (D).

Said Menino: “When you vote, it’s a secret ballot.”

When pressed, he added: “I’m not with anybody at this time. At this time, I’m still not involved in the campaign.”

[Read more…]

A new Marquette Law School poll in Wisconsin shows Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum in the Republican presidential race, 39% to 31%, with Ron Paul at 11% and Newt Gingrich at 5%.

The Wisconsin primary is April 3.