Satisfaction With GOP Presidential Field Slips
YELLIN: In the Republican presidential race, our brand new poll shows Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney are in a neck-and-neck fight among voters nationwide. The survey also drives home that there are problems for the top contenders. Let's bring in our senior political analyst David Gergen. Hi, David.</s>DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Hello, Jessica.</s>YELLIN: Good to see you again. So, first, let's look at voter satisfaction. When we asked among Republican voters, are they satisfied with the field of candidates they have, their satisfaction has fallen 11 points since October. Is that a bad sign for the general election?</s>GERGEN: It sure as heck is not a good one. I think, yes, it's consistent with the turnout, which we see to be down in many states in the Republican-only primaries. It's consistent with what we call the enthusiasm gap that the Republicans seem to be facing. And what I think you're seeing now in the party is a real angst. Can anybody here win this thing in November?</s>YELLIN: Because some say, oh, this all turns around once it's a one- on-one match-up against President Obama.</s>GERGEN: They can't count on that. I think there's been damage done to all the candidates by this long negativity in the campaign.</s>YELLIN: Interesting. There's another startling number in the poll, if we can put up the gender breakdown when you look at the two leading contenders on the Republican side. Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, very different numbers among men and women. Santorum is not doing well among women. Men, if we look at it, Santorum scores 37 percent approval with men, but 29 percent among women. And then you see Romney's numbers, a little bit the flip. How much of a problem is this with Santorum? Does he have a woman problem?</s>GERGEN: Well, I don't think we know enough yet to know whether his stress on abortion and those kinds of things are really causing problems in the Republican primaries. Among Republicans, women and men are basically both fairly conservative on these issues. So you may not yet have a gender problem with that. But if you look at the last two times he ran in Pennsylvania, he did have a gender gap, it did come back to hurt him. But the other part of this, though, Jessica, as you pointed out, there is a flip. And that is, Santorum may have a women's problem, but does Romney have a men's problem?</s>YELLIN: That's interesting.</s>GERGEN: Yes, which is -- Newt Gingrich was consistently outscoring Romney in those early goings among men in a lot of the polls. And what we know from the general election last time when Obama ran is women -- Obama does very well among women. He did very well today in a poll that came out against all the Republican candidates. He was 12 points ahead of Romney among women. So for Republicans to win, they've got to have a candidate who does convincingly well among men. And that -- so this cuts two ways. It's interesting, isn't it?</s>YELLIN: OK. We're going to have to see how this plays out. A lot more to look at, cross tabs and demographics and numbers.</s>GERGEN: Yes, absolutely.</s>YELLIN: Good to see you. Thank you.</s>GERGEN: Thank you. Good to see you.</s>YELLIN: And how big would it be if Mitt Romney lost his home state of Michigan? That, just ahead. Plus, threats, muggings, even a robbery at machete point. Just how safe are sitting Supreme Court justices?