To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (120765 ) 12/29/2011 12:19:53 PM From: TideGlider 2 Recommendations Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 224707 2012 Presidential Matchups Election 2012: Romney 45%, Obama 39% rasmussenreports.com in Politics Email this ShareThis Related Articles Thursday, December 29, 2011 Mitt Romney has now jumped to his biggest lead ever over President Obama in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup. It’s also the biggest lead a named Republican candidate has held over the incumbent in Rasmussen Reports surveying to date. The latest national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely U.S. Voters favor the former Massachusetts governor, while 39% prefer the president. Ten percent (10%) like some other candidate in the race, and six percent (6%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here .) A week ago , Romney trailed Obama 44% to 41%. The week before that, he held a slight 43% to 42% edge over the president. The two candidates have been essentially tied in regular surveys since January, but Romney remains the only GOP hopeful to lead Obama in more than one survey. Despite Romney’s current six-point lead, his latest level of support is in line with the 38% to 45% he has earned in matchups with the president this year. However, Obama’s 39% is a new low: Prior to this survey, his support has ranged from 40% to 46% in matchups with Romney. A generic Republican candidate holds a narrow lead over the president again this week as has been the case all but three times in weekly tracking since late May. Obama leads all the other named GOP candidates by as little as seven and as much as 15 percentage points. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Texas Governor Rick Perry and businessman Herman Cain have all surged ahead of the president at one point but did not maintain those leads.Romney and Texas Congressman Ron Paul are running one-two in Rasmussen Reports’ most recent survey of the Republican race in Iowa as next Tuesday’s caucus approaches. Romney also has more second-choice support than any of the other candidates among likely caucus-goers. Rasmussen Reports will release new numbers from Iowa at noon Eastern today. Sign up for the Rasmussen Reader subscription using the promo code “HOLIDAY” between now and January 15, 2012 and get access to more than 20 exclusive stories each week, including all 2012 election articles, until November 7, 2012 for just $24.95 . (Want a free daily e-mail update ? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook . The national survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on December 27-28, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology . LATEST MATCH-UP RESULTS CAN BE FOUND BY CLICKING HERE . Obama 39% Romney 45% Dec 27-28, 2011 Obama 47% Gingrich 37% Dec 26, 2011 Obama 48% Bachmann 35% Dec 22, 2011 Obama 47% Santorum 37% Dec 16-17, 2011 Obama 43% Paul 35% Dec 10-11, 2011 Obama 46% Perry 34% Dec 4-5, 2011 Obama 41% Huntsman 34% Dec 2-3, 2011 Obama 42% Johnson 27% Oct 4-5, 2011 In his latest matchup with the president, Romney holds a 20-point lead among male voters but trails by six among female voters. The Republican posts a 45% to 29% lead among voters not affiliated with either of the major political parties. Romney earns an overwhelming 75% of the vote from those Tea Party members, while the president leads 49% to 37% among those who are not part of the grass roots movement.Obama has 65% support from the Political Class . Romney leads 51% to 31% among Mainstream voters.