In almost every new national poll Rick Santorum performs just about as well as Mitt Romney in a hypothetical general election match up against President Obama. The new national polls out today from AP/GfK and Qunnipiac both have Romney performing only a single point better than Santorum in the general election.

The Senate map for 2012 is just inherently awful for Democrats. They have to defend incumbents in 23 states, while the Republicans only need to defend 10. Even if there is a relatively strong national Democratic turnout in 2012, the party will likely still have a net loss of Senate seats. With that factored in, though, the prospects for the Democrats at least narrowly holding on to the chamber have been improving.

Early last week it looked like Newt Gingrich had gotten a bump out of his large victory in South Carolina. But since then the momentum in the state has swung strongly to Mitt Romney, who now appears heading to a solid victory tonight. All recent polls have him with significant leads and differ only on just how big the lead is.

Mitt Romney appears to be finishing strong before tomorrow’s Florida primary. The Marist/NBC poll from yesterday found Romney with a 15 point lead. Similarly Quinnipiac now has Romney with a 14 point lead in the sate. The closest poll has his lead at seven points.

A new poll from Quinnipiac shows Mitt Romney’s lead over Gingrich in Florida has grown to nine points from just a two point lead earlier in the week. The size of the Romney lead in the Quinnipiac poll is nearly identical to the lead three other recent polls released yesterday found.

Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich are effectively tied in Florida according to the most recent Quinnipiac University poll. The multi-day poll shows Romney holding just a two point lead over Gingrich, but there’s been a huge 12 point surge in support for Gingrich since earlier in the month. The poll indicates Gingrich is continuing to gain steam in Florida.

The Republican base seems to have recently fallen in love with Gingrich but most everyone else still really dislikes the man. I suspect the GOP primary will depend on whether Republican primary voters realize this fact and/or care that their potential standard bearer is so unpopular with the rest of the country.

Another major national poll by Quinnipiac found that Newt Gingrich leads among national Republican and Republican leaning independents with 26 percent of the vote followed by Mitt Romney at 22 percent and Herman Cain at 14 percent. Gingrich would also beat Romney in a head to head match up.

In a general election matchup President Obama and Mitt Romney are running neck and neck in three of the largest swing states according to a new Quinnipiac poll. The poll found that Obama had a small lead in Ohio and Pennsylvania, while Romney leads in Florida

The American people overwhelmingly think the Super Committee will fail to reach a deal on the deficit. According to Quinnipiac polling, an overwhelming 67 percent think the Super Committee will fail to come up with a plan, while only 27 percent think it is likely that they will.