Beyond The Top Line: The CBS/NYT Poll Of Iowa And New Hampshire

I had some time to digest the New York Times / CBS News poll of Iowa and New Hampshire more fully. Here are some nuggets I found:

First, the Republicans:

## 50% of Huckabee supporters say their minds are made up, compared with only 33% of Romney supporters.

## Nearly 40% of likely Republican caucus goers say they are born-again Christians.

## Huckabee and Giuliani are tied for second choices overall; Huckabee's supporters would choose Romney, meaning that Huckabee's surge is coming at the expense of Romney being able to grow his lead.

## 20% of Huckabee supporters say they're voting for him because he is a conservative; only 7% of Romney voters have a similar view of their guy; Romney gets high marks for honesty and trustworthiness, and a full 10 percent of his support comes from folks who agree with his stances on immigration. Both Romney and Huckabee are given points for their honesty. Romney has the highest fav/unfavor ratio at 57/18, with Huckabee a close second at 50/7. Fully 43% of likely caucus goers don't know enough about Huckabee to evaluate him.

## A full 75% of likely GOP caucus goers say they'd be willing to vote for a candidate who is less conservative if they had a better chance to win the general election, but when that question is narrowed to social issues, only 49% say they'd be willing to hold their noses. 38% say Giuliani is the most electable, with Romney scored 30%.

## The poll notes that nearly 60% of likely Republican caucus goers want their nominee to be more conservative than G.W.B.