Low profile Romney leads High profile figures in '12 race

(Gallup). About one in four Republicans and Republican-leaning independents make Mitt Romney their top choice for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, giving him a slight edge over Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee.

These results are based on a July 10-12 Gallup Poll, which asked Republicans to choose which of six possible candidates for the Republican presidential nomination they would be most likely to support in 2012.As of this moment, Romney, one of John McCain's chief rivals for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, holds a slight but not statistically significant 26% to 21% advantage over Palin, who was McCain's vice presidential running mate.

While Palin trails Romney in the current candidate preference test, she leads both him and Huckabee in terms of their respective favorable ratings among Republicans. Currently, 72% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents have a favorable opinion of Palin, compared with 56% for Romney and 59% for Huckabee.

But her lead on this measure largely reflects the fact that she is better known than the two former governors.

However, the loss in familiarity may not be a bad thing, as the increase in "no opinion" has accompanied a corresponding drop in unfavorable ratings for each, with little change in their favorable ratings. Whereas Romney was viewed significantly more negatively than positively in February 2008(46% unfavorable), about the time he suspended his campaign, now on balance Americans view him more positively due to a 17-point drop in his unfavorable ratings (only 29% view him unfavorable).

OFA Note: And given her high profile the past few weeks ,and Huckabee having his own TV show on FOX , gave them both more public attention, and that is the favorable image they both enjoy, while Romney is keeping in Low profile, letting Obama do the Job, and makes him look day by day the most respected, experienced Guy Americans will want to see in the Oval Office, and that the reason his unfavorable numbers have dropped to only 29% ,while Palin continues to get a decline of 45% (although i have a favorable opinion on Palin i would not vote for her as President, and a favorable opinion doesn't make a Candidate more electable as the poll above shows).