As the media continues to focus solely on Romney, Gingrich and Santorum in South Carolina, the national polls for the fall are fascinating. I don't think they're very good indicators of who'd do best against Obama, but they're all we've got objectively at this point in the game. Currently, Obama is beating all of them in the poll of polls. But two Republicans stand out: Romney and Paul. Romney is 1.2 percent behind Obama and his favorables/unfavorables are far worse. Paul is next, with a 4.6 percent gap. Then you fall off to Gingrich and Santorum – behind Obama by 10.5 and 8.5 percent respectively.
What does it tell you about the state of our politics that the second strongest Republican against Obama is a non-interventionist, anti-drug war, hard money, let-them-all-fail libertarian? Until Republicans figure that out – as Mark Steyn and Michael Tanner have begun to do at NRO – they'll keep staggering on in a neocon desert.
The Dish 