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As Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum slug it out in Michigan, President Obama's numbers go up
Romney and Santorum nearly even in Wolverine State but Obama leads both in head-to-head matchup by at least 10 points

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/election-2012/mitt-romney-rick-santorum-slug-michigan-president-obama-numbers-article-1.1029656#ixzz1neEy8ffb

BY CELESTE KATZ / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Monday, February 27, 2012, 10:53 PM

DETROIT — Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum crisscrossed Michigan Monday in a pre-primary frenzy as polls showed the former Massachusetts governor with a cushy lead in Arizona — and a narrow edge in the Wolverine State.

The winner of this to-the-death duel? President Obama.

As Romney and Santorum slugged it out for victory in Michigan, a Politico/George Washington University Battleground poll showed Obama’s approval rating jumping to 53%.

He now leads Romney by 10 points in a head-to-head matchup, and Santorum by 11.

Romney, who has strained to win the confidence of conservatives in the state where he was born and where his father served as governor, hyped his business experience ahead of voting in Michigan and Arizona on Tuesday.

“Sen. Santorum is a nice guy, but he’s never had a job in the private sector. He’s worked as a lobbyist, worked as an elected official, and that’s fine,” Romney told a crowd in Rockford. “But if the issue of the day is the economy, I think to create jobs it helps to have a guy as President who’s had a job, and I have.”

Santorum, who has seen his standing slip in recent days, is neck-and-neck in Michigan, trailing Romney 39% to 37% in the latest Public Policy Polling survey.

He lashed Romney to President Obama on health care reform, unpopular with conservatives.

“It’s about government control of your life — forcing you to buy things [and\] then forcing their values on you and your religion — which, by the way, Gov. Romney did in Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts by forcing them to distribute the ‘morning-after’ pill,” he said. “Why would we give those issues away in this general election? [Why] would we put someone up there who is uniquely unqualified to make that case?”

At the same time, Santorum was hardly ready to give up talking passionately about his faith.

“You hear so much about separation of church and state. I’m for separation of church and state — the state has no business telling the church what to do,” he said to applause at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast in the Detroit suburb of Livonia.

Team Obama characterized the GOP slugfest as dividing voters instead of addressing their real worries.

“While the Republicans continue to race to the right, the President and his supporters are campaigning on a vision for a job-creating economy that’s built to last — one where hard work pays, responsibility is rewarded, and everyone does their fair share and plays by the same rules,” campaign spokesman Michael Czin told the Daily News.