Santorum Even With Romney, but Obama Beats Both: Poll

Republican voters are split between supporting Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, but neither candidate would unseat President Barack Obama in a general election, a new poll indicates.

Both Romney and Santorum drew support from about a third of respondents to a new AP-GfK poll, with Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich lagging far behind. The poll captured the voting public's continued ambivalence about the men vying for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination -- people who were dissatisfied with their choices outnumbered those were satisfied, 53-44.

The poll also found that Obama would defeat each of his potential Republican challengers by about a 10-point margin. The president fared particularly well among independents, with six in 10 self-identified independents saying they would vote for Obama.

Santorum's stock has been steadily rising. The former Pennsylvania senator's favorability rating among Republicans has skyrocketed from 37 percent in December to 70 percent in the current poll. He appears to be more polarizing for the general electorate, with roughly the same percentage of adults registering favorable and unfavorable impressions.

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