NBC/WSJ Poll: Governor Palin Is Considered the GOP's Most Important Leader By Republican and Republican-Leaning Indies (Update)

This isn't stated explicitly in the following Wall Street Journal article but you can tell that is what the poll found by looking at the graphics on the left-hand side of the article.The Wall Street Journal asked Republican and Republican leaning independents who they considered to be the Republican Party's most important leader/spokesperson. One-third of Republican and Republican-leaning indies did not consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party. One-third of Republican and Republican-leaning indies consider themselves supporters of the Tea Party but identify more with the Republican Party than with the Tea Party. One-third of Republican and Republican-leaning indies consider themselves Tea Party supporters who identify more with the Tea Party than with Republicans.Palin performed well with the three different wings. She finished only two behind Romney among the first group, tied with Huckabee for the lead in the second group, and finished second in the final group to Newt Gingrich. Romney finished fourth in the final two groups while Newt finished fourth and third in the first two groups, respectively. Huckabee finished behind Palin in the first and third groups.So what this poll shows is that she has the most balanced support of all the prospective candidates among non-Tea Party Republican/Republican leaning-indies, Tea Party folks that are more Republican than Tea Party, and Tea Party folks that are more Tea Party than Republican.Update: To elaborate further on my point about balance, this poll shows that she's the one who has the most appeal to Tea Party and non-Tea Party supporters. Romney does terribly on this question with Tea Party supporters while Newt does terribly with non-Tea Party supporters. She does well with both Tea Party and non-Tea Party supporters.

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