GOP Ideology

I constantly see Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney getting accused of being RINO's. So I was pretty surprised on our most recent 2012 poll to see there are more Republicans who think that Sarah Palin's too conservative than there are who think either Huckabee or Romney is too liberal.

The difference isn't big- 12% of GOP voters think Palin's too conservative while 10% think Huckabee's too liberal and 9% think Romney is.

I think those numbers show that- at least at this point- sentiment that Huckabee or Romney is not ideologically fit to be the Republican standard bearer is largely confined to hyper partisans on the internet.

Those Republicans who think Palin's too conservative pose a big problem for her electability prospects. They say they'd vote for Barack Obama 72-13 over Palin and that's a big part of why she loses more of the overall Republican vote- 14%- than either Huckabee (11%) or Romney (10%) does.