ahead in the florida primary. up and down. up and down. 39%. it s back to about where it was before newt gingrich s big win in south carolina. romney reclaiming his top spot in the real clear average of polls as well. take a look at the currents delegate count. romney leads with 33%. rick santorum has 14 degree, ron paul has 4. 50 delegates are up for grabs. the winner takes all. still have a long way to go in this race. it takes 1,144 delegates to win the gop nomination. a man who says don t count hip out of this race, rick santorum, we ll ask about reports he may be skipping out early on the sunshine state. and he may instead head to virginia this weekend.
standing is as the standard bearer, it s taken conservatives a long time to get used to this. they just don t like the idea of it. and it s not easy to sort of come to grips with the offer of romney care as the gop nominee. the author of romney care being the gop nominee. what she is saying is you don t have to go with romney. but i think what we are probably looking at is a ceiling for romney. and, you know, a real opening for whether it s chris christie jumping in or herman cain or somebody else. martha: i think you are so right. these numbers tell us this is still a very, very open question. let s pull you have the christy poll. this is an interesting number.
when your brother in laugh is unemployed it s a recession. when you are unemployed it s a depression. when jimmy carter is unemployed it s a recovery. my plan those out the old one, he s still hooked to the current tax code. that dog won t hunt. martha: this is the new poll. newt gingrich and he and hern making huge increases, launching them into a whole different strata. romney took the top spot from rick perry. rick perry coming in with 19%. let s bring in our political panel and talk about this.
this sort of spring from have much the back of the heap all the way near the front. martha: it s fascinating to me. if anything these numbers say this is still a very open question. jonathon, let me go to you on this next one in terms of mitt romney. he only picked up by 1 percentage point. if you are sarah palin or chris christie looking how these numbers stack up. you are say 23%? maybe i can contend with that. one of the things about romney is he has been focused like a laser beam on all the things he needs to do to get through iowa and new hampshire. but what is the most interesting thing from the poll is this intensity among republican voters for this field. there has been a narrative that republicans aren t happy with this field. now we see 63% of american
the left? you know, i don t belong to an org need party, i m a democrat, and sometimes we tend to fight amongst ourselves a lot and it gives openings to the gop. i think that s why the president over the weekend at the congressional black caucus said stop complaining. i don t think he was talking to them specifically, i think he was talking to the progressive phaoplment generally, we ve got to work together or we re going see president romney orioo. democrats are always looking to who else can do this or be better at that. that s the way we are. we don t tend to unite around a single candidate in this party. it s been our problem for a generation. it s why republicans have a majority now. let s face it, for all the talk of the tea party last year, if democrats would have showed up at the polls the polls they would have won many house seats. not all but many of them. that s the problem with our party. bill: how do you evaluate what these numbers tell us, jonah? i think chris is