GOP Split on Romney or Perry as Best Obama Foe

Which Republican candidate has a better chance of beating President Barack Obama next year, presumptive front-runner Mitt Romney or new entrant Rick Perry, who also ranks first in some polls? That’s the question many Republicans are asking now, and they’re divided between former Massachusetts Gov. Romney and Texas Gov. Perry, The Hill reports.


Conventional wisdom has it that Romney would draw more moderate voters from Obama, while Perry would do more to inspire the GOP’s conservative base.


“Gov. Perry would, absolutely, mobilize the very conservative tea party faction,” Cameron Lynch, a Republican consultant, told The Hill. “The question is: At what cost? Do you end up alienating independents?”


Many Republican strategists say they just aren’t certain who’s better. One of them is Sabrina Schaeffer, who told The Hill that, although Romney may avoid polarizing voters, “he seems to lack that visceral commitment to conservative principles that his base wants to see.”