GOP Candidates Popular With Base - But Not The Public

I thought these poll numbers were interesting. They come from a YouGov Poll taken between November 8th and 10th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults (with a margin of error of around 4 points).

All of the eight leading Republican candidates are viewed favorably by the GOP's base voters. But those voters prefer one of the extremist candidates to the more "moderate" candidates like Bush or Christie. Although Bush and Christie have significant favorable ratings, they also have a higher unfavorable rating than any of the other, more extreme candidates -- with Bush being viewed unfavorably by 23% and Christie by 29%.

But the numbers for all eight of these candidates fall dramatically when judged by the general public. Only three of them have a higher favorable rating than unfavorable -- Huckabee (+6), Ryan (+5), and Paul (+1) -- and none of them tops 40% in favorability. All five of the other candidates (including Bush and Christie) are upside down in their favorability rating -- Romney (-6), Perry (-7), Bush (-9), Cruz (-5), and Christie (-7).

It looks like all of the GOP's leading candidates have a long way to go to win over the public at large.