Present Polls

Looking through the 2012 Presidential election polls, Obama's closest competition is Romney. Rasmussen who is a decidedly conservative pollster even has Romney over Obama by 2%, otherwise all other polls has Obama beating all candidates handily.

Curiously Obama loses in most polls against a "generic" GOP Tea Party candidate. One might suspect that when the question is asked - who would you vote for Obama or someone else - the dominant answer is someone else but when a specific someone else is named like Perry, Cain, Bachmann, Gingrich, or Romney, Obama wins.

This suggests that people are not pleased with the GOP Tea Party candidates. Personally I am surprised that Cain, Perry, Bachmann, and Gingrich are even in the race they seem so not presidential. On the other hand, nothing the GOP Tea Party does should surprise anyone considering G. W. Bush was elected twice.

Real Clear Politics: President Obama vs. Republican Candidates