The national Republican Party understands that it needs to not only moderate party policies, but run a more moderate candidate that will appeal to most Americans in 2016. But that is not the opinion of the teabaggers in the party. These people live in a world of their own, and they believe the Republicans lost in 2012 because their candidate (Mitt Romney) was not conservative enough. And their opinion is an important one, since they control the party in many states -- especially in the South, the non-coastal West, and a lot of the Midwest. No candidate can win in those areas without teabagger support.So, who do the teabaggers support? One of the larger teabagger organizations conducted their own online poll of 63,000 people. The poll is not as scientific as the professional polls, but it does give us a good idea of who the teabaggers might support -- and who they won't support. The results of that survey is shown in the chart above.
Note that the three candidates generally thought to be the most moderate (even though all of them are solid right-wingers) did very poorly -- with Jon Huntsman and Jeb Bush getting 29% approval, and Chris Christie finishing last with only 15% approval. It looks like the scandals currently plaguing Christie have combined with his perception by teabaggers of being a moderate to hurt any chance he might have of becoming the nominee.
Personally, I like the results of this survey. Although I think Hillary Clinton could beat anyone on that list, it would be an easier victory if the Republicans nominated Ted Cruz, Ron Paul, or Scott Walker (instead of someone like Jeb Bush or Jon Huntsman).
