Adam Sorensen reports on the latest Time/CNN poll from South Carolina:
The poll, which surveyed likely primary voters on Wednesday and Thursday, found Romney commanding 37% support, a 17-point gain since early December. He’s not the only one carrying momentum out of Iowa’s photo finish. Rick Santorum has surged 15 points to 19%, picking up the largest chunk of Newt Gingrich’s shattered coalition.
….The largest remaining threat to Romney is a conservative bloc coalesced behind one candidate. As of Friday, that simply isn’t happening. Romney is getting his share of born-again Christians (35%), Tea Party supporters (32%) and self-described conservatives (37%).
If Romney wins Iowa, New Hampshire, and the conservative stronghold of South Carolina, it’s really hard to see this race continuing much past February. Right now, the only plausible anti-Romney scenario is for everyone else to drop out quickly and put all their support behind Santorum, but there are two problems with that. First, the other candidates won’t do it. The fact is that, among Beltway Republicans, Santorum isn’t much better liked than Romney. Second, even if they did, it’s hard to see it working in time. Santorum just doesn’t have the money or organization to ramp up victories quickly, and in just a few days he’s already shown that his ability to verbally self-destruct is very nearly Gingrichian. Even if the race does come down to Romney vs. Santorum, Romney will win pretty easily.
Question: has an “Anybody But ______” movement ever worked in modern history? My memory goes back to ABC — Anybody But Carter — in 1976, and obviously that didn’t work. And I can’t think of any other example where a clear front-runner was defeated after a few victories by the rest of the field dropping out and coalescing around a single alternative. The collective action problem is simply too hard to resolve in the heat and speed of a modern-day primary.
