Mitt Romney is apparently crushing the GOP field in New Hampshire. Like, really bad.A new WMUR Granite State Poll finds Mitt Romney way ahead in a Republican New Hampshire primary with 40%, followed by Rudy Giuliani at 10%, Mike Huckabee at 7%, Tim Pawlenty at 7%, Sarah Palin at 6%, Newt Gingrich at 6% and Ron Paul at 5%.That's a certified beat-down, made even worse when you consider the weakness of Giuliani, who is in second. This shouldn't be surprising though. Apparently, the GOP field is very weak. Case in point, talking about the ratings of this 2012 field:
As compared to the other examples that we’ve looked at, there’s an awful lot of red in that chart — meaning, candidates whom the public views more unfavorably than favorably. Two exceptions are Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney, who are slightly into positive territory. On the other hand, Sarah Palin and Newt Gingrich have especially poor ratings.
Several other candidates, like Mr. Thune and Mr. Pawlenty, are not yet terribly well-known — which means that they have plenty of room to grow. Nevertheless, their numbers were worse than someone like John Kerry, who was also not all that well-known, but who elicited favorable (rather than ambivalent) reactions from those voters that did know him.
Meanwhile, the Republicans have two candidates in Ms. Palin and Mr. Gingirch whose net favorability ratings are actually in the double-digit negatives, something which since 2000 had only been true of Pat Buchanan and Al Sharpton.
How much will they matter? Conventional wisdom is that they won't. Common wisdom says re-elections are about Presidents. I guess common wisdom is not privy to 2004's election. I think that this President's personal likability will allow him to survive unless the GOP has a candidate who's at least sane. Right now, they have a very weak field.
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