The Hill News

Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said he's surprised that Mitt Romney is polling as well as he is in head-to-head match-ups again President Obama, given how "tough" the Republican primary has been.

"There's also some polling out there showing Mitt Romney beating him, which is amazing to me, given that we've got a tough Republican primary," Portman, a Romney surrogate, said Monday on Laura Ingraham's radio show. "I'm actually surprised, Laura, that the numbers are so good. In fact, I saw over the weekend that Mitt Romney's within the margin of error."

Portman's comments come the same day that The Washington Post and ABC News released a poll showing Obama leading Romney among registered ! voters, 51 percent to 45, and Obama leading 52 percent to 43 among Americans in general. The poll was conducted a week earlier.

Portman said the numbers were due to a contentious Republican primary. The Ohio senator added that he thought Americans would, in the end, side with Romney but the 2012 election wouldn't be a landslide for the former Massachusetts governor.

"I think people just don't believe that things are getting better," Portman added. "It's not going to be a landslide, it's going to be close."