Paul’s Ratings

Here’s another Ron Paul puzzle.  While the top five GOP candidates are translating 50-70% or more of their “very favourable” rating into support, according to the latest Rasmussen survey of N.H. likely GOP voters, Ron Paul has a 13% very favourable rating and manages to get only 4% in the polls, noticeably underperforming the field in turning a favourable impression into an expression of support.  Overall, he has ratings of 33 fav/51 unfav, which gives him the largest (and only) net negative favourability result of any of the candidates listed in the survey.  Even so, out of that 33% he ought to be able to get at least 9-10% who will cast a vote for him.  Obviously, to have a major impact on the primary and on the race he needs to do a lot better.  If he could somehow manage to get 20-25%, that would be a major breakthrough and might be enough to win in such a divided field (Buchanan won in ’96 with 27%).  As of right now, we’re obviously a long way from that happening.