President Barack Obama can still lose the 2012 election, despite an ideological divide within the Republican Party.
"This president can be defeated. He inherited a bad economy but every measure of the economy since he’s been president has gotten worse in the three years," Sen. Charles Grassley (R.-Iowa) told CNBC Wednesday, the day after Mitt Romney eked out a win in his state's caucuses.
"I think people want change, and if there’s a clear division between the two nominees, of the two main parties, and there’s not a third-party candidate I believe President Obama…can be beaten very easily," said Grassley, a member of the Senate Finance Committee.
The longtime senator said party infighting, such as the battle in Iowa involving former Massachusetts Gov. Romney, former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, is nothing new — Democrats Obama and Hillary Clinton battled through the process up until May.
"I went to a lot of different caucuses last night…and I told the people that we’re going to elect a Republican president as long as we coalesce around our nominee, whoever he is, and that will be decided probably by the month of April," Grassley said.
He added: "If we coalese around them, we will win. These nomination fights are just part of the process in the United States that we go through and both political parties tend to get behind their candidate."