Santorum Neck-and-Neck with Obama in Latest Poll

Gallup: Obama 49 per cent, Santorum 48 per cent.

Former senator Rick Santorum is not only leading the field for the Republican presidential nomination, he's also virtually tied with President Barack Obama according to the latest Gallup poll. Santorum, who in recent days has chastized women for choosing to work and criticized Obama for governing with "a phony theology", nabbed the support of 48 per cent of respondents in a survey taken between Feb. 16-19. Obama landed 49 per cent, a lead that is smaller than the poll's margin of error. The same poll also found that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney lead Obama head-to-head, 50 per cent to 46. Santorum's numbers indicate that his deeply socially conservative positions on abortion, gay rights, labour, the environment, the constitution, women, and just about everything else haven't necessarily hurt his chances among right-leaning voters. Previous polls had shown Obama with a yawning margin over Santorum, typically somewhere between 10 and 15 per cent.

However, polls from Arizona, which is set to hold its primary next week, show that female voters are more than twice as likely to vote for Romney than Santorum. Saying that "radical feminists" tricked women into wanting to work tends to have that effect, we suppose. In Michigan, which is also holding a primary next week, the difference is less pronounced among female voters – 39 per cent said they'd cast ballots for Romney vs. 33 per cent for Santorum. All in all, though, these numbers suggest that should Santorum seal the nomination come Super Tuesday on March 6, he could face considerable difficulty in getting women – even Republican women – on his side come November.