DNC chair: Romney’s support eroding despite N.H. win

Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, just released a statement in which she argues that despite Mitt Romney’s sizable margin of victory in New Hampshire, the candidate failed to meet expectations.

Here’s the statement:

“Mitt Romney may have won in New Hampshire tonight, but he can’t run from the fact that his support was rapidly eroding before any vote was even cast. Over the course of the last few months Romney had the support of as much as 45 percent of the primary electorate -- at one point boasting a nearly 30 percent lead over the rest of the GOP field. But tonight he fell far short of meeting expectations -- especially in a state where he’s a part-time resident, which is next door to his home state of Massachusetts, in the same media market. He fell short next to a state where he raised a family and served as governor, and where he’s been running on and off for political office over nearly two decades and for president for seven years.

“But what’s more troubling for Mitt Romney is the fact that the premise of his candidacy is unraveling. He leaves here wounded by a series of episodes that made it clear to voters -- both in New Hampshire and for those watching across the country -- that he is completely out of touch with the concerns of America’s working and middle-class families. Romney disingenuously claimed just a few days ago that he once feared getting a pink slip when in fact his campaign can’t offer any examples of when that might have been the case. Yesterday, he went as far as saying that he enjoys being able to fire people. He continues to call himself a job creator, but his accounts of creating 100,000 jobs at Bain Capital have been knocked down across the board. Even worse, as one of his colleagues said, he never considered what they did at Bain Capital as job creation. What they did was make a profit while companies were sometimes driven to bankruptcy, workers were laid off, and jobs were sent overseas. These revelations have led to a precipitous drop in Mitt Romney’s support -- and his failure to perform better in the Granite State is a significant setback for both his campaign and his candidacy for president.”