Romney Polling Well

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-For the first time he came the closest to Barack Obama in our monthly 2012 survey, trailing by 2 points compared to 3 for Mike Huckabee and 7 for Sarah Palin.

-His favorability among Republicans nationally went from 51% in December to 57% in February while Palin's (73% to 72%) and Huckabee's (57% to 56%) more or less stayed the same.

-Our analysis last week of swing voters nationally found that Romney might be the Republican who can best appeal to folks in the middle. His favorability with them was a net +15, compared to +10 for Huckabee and -30 for Palin.

-In our state by state 2012 Republican polling last week we found Romney up in New Mexico and Texas. He's also doing better than expected in the south- he was in third place but at a solid 25% in North Carolina two weeks ago and our Georgia polling later this week will show him in second.

It's debatable how much of this stuff two years before the first primaries and caucuses really matters, but Romney certainly seems to have the momentum among the leading GOP contenders at least for now.

It will be interesting to see if Mitch Daniels gets support to make a strong run even though he has hinted he won't.