Newt Gingrich is surging in a new Rasmussen Reports national poll that gives him a double-digit lead over Mitt Romney. (AP)
WASHINGTON — Newt Gingrich has jumped to a stunning 21-point lead over Mitt Romney in a new national poll, the latest sign that the combative former House speaker has made it a two-man race — for now.
Gingrich leads the field with 38 percent in the latest Rasmussen Reports survey, with Romney trailing at 17 percent.
The rest of the Republican field trails far behind in single digits.
With other surveys showing a Gingrich surge, the poll confirms his meteoric rise, which has coincided with his commanding debate performances and Herman Cain’s collapsing support amid a series of allegations of sexual harassment and a claim that he had a 13-year affair.
The latest Fox News poll also puts Gingrich in the lead, at 23 percent, with Romney at 22.
“I’m going to be the nominee,” a confident Gingrich told ABC News. “It’s very hard not to look at the recent polls and think that the odds are very high I’m going to be the nominee.”
With a bombastic history in Congress and vulnerabilities with social conservatives because of his two divorces, Gingrich all but challenged his potential critics to bring it on.
“And by the way, I don’t object if people want to attack me. That’s their right. All I’m suggesting is that it’s not going to be very effective and that people are going to get sick of it very fast.”
He continued, “And the guys who attacked each other in the debates up to now, every single one of them have lost ground by attacking.”
Gingrich is not the first GOP candidate in the 2012 race to post a sudden surge.
“It is similar to, but larger than, the surges enjoyed earlier by [Michele] Bachmann, [Rick] Perry and Cain. The question is whether or not Gingrich can handle the front-runner’s spotlight more successfully than the others,” said pollster Scott Rasmussen.
Gingrich also has climbed to the top in polls in critical early states Iowa and New Hampshire, and even battleground Florida.
Romney, whose campaign has been caught off guard by Gingrich’s surge, flew to Houston yesterday to meet with former President George W. Bush. The Romney camp said that the two are “friends,” but that no endorsement is imminent.
In a move with strategic importance, Romney went on the air with positive TV ads in Iowa, signaling he is making a serious bid there.
But a push by Romney in Iowa raises the risks that he could be embarrassed if he doesn’t do well there, which is what happened in 2008.
The Iowa ad closes with a shot of Romney holding the hand of his wife, Anne, which could be a subtle gesture to contrast him with Gingrich.
Romney, in a recent TV interview on Fox, went after Gingrich’s record, arguing that he himself was more conservative and alluding to a TV ad Gingrich made about global warming with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Perry, meanwhile, released his own TV ad to accompany his appearance last night on NBC’s “Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
In it, he pokes fun at his brain freeze in a recent GOP debate in which he failed to remember the Department of Education as the third federal agency he wants to abolish.