Economist/YouGov Poll: Sarah Palin 20% Mitt Romney 14%

By Gary P Jackson

A brand new poll from The Economist and YouGov shows Sarah Palin leads Mitt Romney and a crowded field of Republican hopefuls. The poll conducted between June 11 and June 15 is pretty comprehensive, asking questions on a wide range of topics.

As far as the Republican presidential nomination, the results are as follows:

Sarah Palin. . . . . . . . . 20%

Mitt Romney. . . . . . . .14%

Rudy Giuliani . . . . . . 11%

Rick Perry . . . . . . . . . . 8%

Herman Cain .. . . . . . . 7%

Michele Bachmann ... .5%

Newt Gingrich . . . ... . .5%

Ron Paul . . . . . . . . . . . .5%

Tim Pawlenty. . . . . . . . 4%

Rick Santorum .  . .. . . .3%

Jon Huntsman . . . . . . . 2%

Buddy Roemer.. . . . . . .1%

Gary Johnson . . . . . . . .0%

Fred Karger . . . . . . . . . .0%

No preference . . . . . . . .15%

Another area that shows Sarah Palin leading Mitt Romney is with "values questions" :

Sarah Palin cares about people like me.

Strongly Agree 19% Somewhat Agree 15%

Sarah Palin understands people like me.

Strongly Agree 17% Somewhat Agree 16%

Sarah Palin shares my values.

Strongly Agree 17% Somewhat Agree 15%

Sarah Palin understands complex issues.

Strongly Agree 14% Somewhat Agree 15%

Mitt Romney cares about people like me.

Strongly Agree 7% Somewhat Agree 17%

Mitt Romney understands people like me.

Strongly Agree 8% Somewhat Agree 15%

Mitt Romney shares my values.

Strongly Agree 9% Somewhat Agree 15%

Mitt Romney understands complex issues.

Strongly Agree 15% Somewhat Agree 25%

This comes on the heels of a CNN poll that shows 80% of their sample saying Sarah Palin agrees with then on the issues and 79% feel she represents their values. The CNN poll over-samples democrats significantly.

Looking at the "values" numbers, Team Romney should be quite concerned, as the latest Gallup polling shows a full 52%of Sarah Palin's supports say they are certain there is no way they will change their vote, while only 30% of Romney supporters say the same.

This is a hard poll to reconcile with other polling as they say their sample is of "1000 General Population Respondents and does not break them down by political orientation as most do. Looking at the approval numbers Barack Obama gets, one might assume there are more democrats in the mix than Republicans, but there is no way to prove or disprove this.

Check out the entire poll here.