Gary Johnson: the only “major” GOP candidate popular at home

With Gary Johnson having been snubbed this week by having been excluded from the CNN debate, the race to oppose Obama in 2012 is really getting started. Interestingly enough, a recent poll by Public Policy Polling finds that of the “major” GOP candidates (Ron Paul was inexplicably excluded from the poll), Johnson is THE ONLY GOP candidate to have positive polling numbers in their home state.

Johnson as 44-32 favorability ratings here in New Mexico. This is good news both for America and New Mexico for three reasons:

First and foremost, it shows that CNN was wrong in excluding Johnson;
Secondly it shows that being a fiscal conservative is popular, even in a heavily-Democrat state like New Mexico (hopefully Gov. Martinez has seen these numbers);
Thirdly, it would seem to indicate that the people who know the various candidates best like Gary Johnson better than people in other states. Interestingly enough, Mitt Romney, former Governor of another liberal state (Massachusetts), the front-runner and father of the failed “RomneyCare” experiment, has polling numbers that have him 12 points in the negative among his home-state voters. It would appear that small government ideas are still more popular among voters than are big government ideas.