The Romney Conundrum

Yesterday I wrote about how Mitt Romney's overall favorability numbers with Republicans were crashing.

Let's look at a more specific swath of the GOP electorate though- those voters who think that the party's too conservative. It's not a huge group but it's the one most likely to cross over and vote for Obama in 2012 and thus Republicans really need to hold onto them if they want to win the next Presidential election.

Sarah Palin is not the answer with those folks. 43% of them have a positive opinion of her but 37% view her negatively for a +6 net favorability rating.

Mike Huckabee comes out better with 44% viewing him favorably and 16% having an unfavorable take, for a +28 net ratio.

And the most popular with this group? None other than Mitt Romney at a 51/16 favorability spread for a net +35.

So the guy the Republican rank and file likes the least is the one that the weakest group of Republican voters like the most. Those are the sorts of internal disparities the GOP is going to have to work out if it wants to win the next time around.