New poll has Romney up big in Florida

Rasmussen just released its latest poll of likely Republican primary voters:

Mitt Romney is now running away with the race in the latest Rasmussen Reports’ survey of the end-of-the-month Florida Republican Primary.

Coming off his decisive win in Tuesday’s New Hampshire Primary, Romney earns 41% support with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich a distant second at 19%. A new telephone survey of Likely Florida Republican Primary Voters finds former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum running third with 15% of the vote.

 Snowbirds or not, Florida is still very much a Southern State, especially on the Republican side of things.  So that shows me the tide (or some might say the worm) has turned.  And there were some other interesting nuggets.  In the midst of the primary with all guns more or less trained on him, particularly from the party's more conservative wing, 76% of the likely Florida Republican primary voters view him favorably.  Perhaps even more importantly, almost 80% view him as the the expected eventual Republican nominee.  Expectations are at least nearing the tipping point to becoming reality.  The only and last chance for Mitt's train to derail would be an upset in South Carolina on January 21st.