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Do Republicans Really Like Mit Romney

I was reading this in the huffington Post and thought it was pretty good.  As you’ll see they build a pretty point of saying that Mit Romney is the best logical choice. Republicans will probably end up nominating him not because they like him but because of other reasons:

While former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney has been a staple in GOP presidential campaigns for at least the past five years he has yet to sway a majority of Republican that he’s “the one” for them. On at least three indicators of candidate preference among self-reported Republicans Romney’s numbers are competitive, but inconsistent with beliefs that he will be the eventual nominee.

According to recent CNN polls, Romney is viewed as the candidate most likely to win the GOP nomination, yet he is not the most liked, and his stances on issues are not strongly aligned with large numbers of Republicans. It appears that Republicans are yearning for another candidate who can excite them, and are only supporting Romney because they think he has the “best chance” of beating Obama–which doesn’t mean they think he will.

We can gauge the divide between Romney’s perceived viability and “love” from Republicans by calculating the percentage point differences between those who think he will likely win the nomination versus other indicators of candidate preference. When these numbers are calculated (in tables below) across the board Romney is at or near the bottom of the GOP heap. These data suggest that Republicans might be willing to “hold their noses” and support Romney even though he does not measure up in terms of likeability, ability fix the economy, or issue agreement. This could have implications for turn-out and unity among Republicans.

CNN polls over the past two months — one conducted September 9-11, and another conducted October 14-16 — have tracked Republican and Independent leaning Republican (henceforth “Republicans”) public opinions on 1) who is most likely to win the GOP nomination for president, 2) likeability, 3) agreement on issues, 4) who is most likely to get the economy moving, and 5) who has the best chance of beating the incumbent, Barack Obama.

See the Original Story here