Poll: Romney only 'acceptable' candidate to majority of conservative, centrist Republicans

Mitt Romney is the only candidate a majority of both conservative and centrist Republican voters see as "acceptable," welcome news for the Republican front-runner headed into Tuesday's pivotal New Hampshire primary.

Romney was deemed acceptable by nearly six in 10 of both conservative and "moderate/liberal" Republicans, according to a new poll released by Gallup, the only candidate to poll that high in either group. Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum both cleared the 50 percent threshold among conservative voters, but only garnered 36 percent and 35 percent of centrist Republicans, respectively.

Ron Paul earned a similar number among centrists, but only 25 percent of conservative Republicans thought of the Texas congressman as acceptable — lower than any candidate aside from Jon Huntsman. Huntsman, perhaps surprisingly, considering his direct appeals to centrist voters, also polled lowest among more liberal Republicans, with only a quarter finding him acceptable.

Those numbers represent a 5 percent gain in "acceptability" for Romney among GOP voters and a more dramatic 18 percentage point leap for Santorum since the last time the poll was released, at the beginning of last month. Each of the remaining Republican candidates saw his numbers fall, with Gingrich's 16-point drop ranking as the worst in the field.

Romney's cross-spectrum appeal should help him as he hopes to quickly sew up the GOP nomination and focus efforts on the general election. But the numbers also betray a dissatisfaction with the GOP field. In a CBS survey also released Tuesday, nearly six in 10 Republicans say they wish they had more options in the 2012 race.

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