Santorum gets within 8%

Poll	Romney	Santorum	Ron Paul	Gingrich	Perry	Huntsman
Rasmussen NATIONAL	29	21	12	16	4	4
Gallup NATIONAL tracker	27	11	13	19	6	2
Suffolk Uni NEW HAMPSHIRE tracker	41	8	18	7	0	7
Zogby NEW HAMPSHIRE	38	11	24	9	1	8

The big difference between the Gallup daily poll and Rasmussen is that the former is a tracker based on the average of the last five surveys. As Nate Silver observes it’s easy to extrapolate that the latest part of this had Santorum on about 20% – almost the same.

The Suffolk New Hampshire poll is also a tracker with half today’s number being based on fieldwork yesterday – the rest took place before the Iowa outcome was known. So the latest Santo share is higher than that reported.

Whatever the Anti-Romneyites have got a huge task ahead if they wish to stop Romney. A lot could depend on the two New Hampshire debates this weekend.

Mike Smithson @MikeSmithsonOGH