According to a Rasmussen Reports poll released on December 13, 2011, voters like Gov. Mitt Romney the best, but GOP voters give the edge to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on who they believe can run a stronger campaign against President Barack Obama.
The national telephone survey finds that 53% of likely U.S. voters have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Romney, while 38% view him unfavorably.
Gingrich, on the other hand, is seen somewhat favorable by 43% and unfavorably by 50%.
Both have seen a slight improvement from a month ago when Romney was seen favorably by 48% and Gingrich sat at 38%.
As for Governor Rick Perry, only 29% view him favorably while 60% regard him unfavorably, making him the least liked GOP hopeful among all voters.
Voters rate Gingrich and Romney evenly when questioned which Republican candidate would run strongest against President Obama, but among GOP voters Gingrich is well ahead of Romney.
Among GOP voters, 49% believe Gingrich is better suited to go up against President Obama compared to Romney’s 24%.
In a survey released at the end of last month, Gingrich was ahead with 38% of GOP support with Romney in a distant second at 17%. This was the largest lead held by any Republican candidate in the race for the GOP nomination.
However, Gingrich trails Obama 45% to 40% in their latest matchup, while Romney continues to remain in a dead heat with the president trailing by just two percentage points - 42% for Obama compared to 40% for Romney.
The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on December 8-9, 2011 with a margin of sampling error of +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.