Republican and Republican-leaning voters do not have a very positive view of their party’s presidential candidates: 44% say as a group, the candidates running for the Republican nomination are excellent or good, while 43% say they are only fair or poor.
But these ratings are only slightly more negative than GOP voters’ views of the party’s presidential field in September 2007. At that time, 49% of Republican and Republican-leaning voters said the GOP candidates were excellent or good while 44% said they were only fair or poor.
And as the 2008 campaign progressed, Republican voters subsequently came to view their party’s candidates more favorably. By January 2008, 67% said the GOP candidates were excellent or good compared with 31% who said they were only fair or poor.
Democratic voters had much more positive views of their party’s candidates throughout the 2008 campaign. In September 2007, 64% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters rated the Democratic field as excellent or good and by January 2008, 78% expressed a positive opinion of the candidates.
But in 2004, Democratic voters began with a fairly lukewarm impression of their party’s candidates, and those opinions changed little as the campaign continued. In September 2003, 44% rated the Democratic field as excellent or good; by January 2004, 47% of Democratic voters expressed positive views of their party’s candidates.
Romney's religion is a potential challenge for him:
