Public Policy Polling pits Barack Obama against prospective Republican nominees in 2012, and finds a very popular President besting four major contenders.
2012 matchup
1. Obama 49% Huckabee 42%
2, Obama 50% Romney 39%
3. Obama 53% Palin 41%
4. Obama 52% Gingrich 39%
Favorability Splits:
1. Huckabee 42%/34%
2. Romney 40%/35%
3. Palin 42%/49%
4. Gingrich 36%/44%
Some bad news for Sarah Palin:
Sarah Palin's numbers are an interesting conundrum. She easily has the best favorability among Republicans voters, with 76% saying they have a positive opinion of her. The other three range from 60-67 with the party base. But she also has the largest percentage of GOP voters- 21%- who say they would vote for Obama if she ended up being the party nominee. So for the folks in the party who don't like her that feeling is strong enough they'd rather vote for a Democrat. It adds up to a 12 point deficit for her, 53-41. Overall the electorate has a negative opinion of Palin, 42/49.
Full poll results here (pdf).
UPDATE: Bad news for Romney in a primary; better news for a general.
The low 60% favorability rating among GOP voters belongs to Mitt Romney, certainly an indication that securing the nomination is likely to once again be a struggle for him. He is viewed favorably by the largest numbers of Democrats for any of the Republican candidates in the survey, at 27%.
