Yes, 75% of the GOP base would opt for somebody other than Romney as a first choice.

All at once a whole lot of people are talking as though the GOP base are suddenly bystanders in all this.

Yet, he is going to stonewall, because the GOP base is so desperate for a non-Romney candidate that they will blame the media, the Democrats, etc.

The other issue of course is not one of the GOP contenders is doing much to excited the GOP base at all.

Huntsman upset the great xenophobic, evangelical, fundamentalist GOP base by speaking Chinese in public and demonstrating that, unlike that base, he is actually educated.

He's an example of what Republicans once were like, as is Huntsman, and now they're treated by the GOP base like turds in the punchbowl.

Frankly, the GOP base has for the past 20 years or so given the impression of being madder than a bag full of cats thrown into a river.

The GOP base may want big ideas, but it's kitchen table conservatism that will put Romney in the White House.

It's good for the GOP base to be forced to spend some times listening to his views on (many) civil liberties issues and military policy.

It looks like the GOP base is still as demoralized and schizophrenic as it was in 2008.