Comparing what Israelis want to what Americans want is alwaysinteresting, and TheIsrael Factor survey now provides us with an opportunity to compare theRepublican field of 2012 candidates. Last week, a couple of polls had rankedthe Republican prospective contenders for the presidency. Take, for example,the ClarusReaserch Group poll

Candidate Israel Factor Clarus poll

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Here’s a table comparing the leading candidates in this poll - namely, the candidates with the most support among Republican voters - withthe numbers our Israel Factor panel ranked thesame candidates (when we asked the panel to rank from 1, bad for Israel, to 10,good for Israel):Mitt Romney 6 19%Mike Huckabee 5.75 18%Sara Palin 3.87 17%Newt Gingrich 5.71 10%Chris Christie 4.6 9%Ron Paul 3.86 4%Bobby Jindal 4.5 4%Tim Pawlenty 5.8 3%Haley Barbour 3.75 2%John Thune 4.8 2%Mitch Daniels 4 2%A couple of notes:1. We didn’t yet rank Marco Rubio in the Factor survey, but he gets 5% at the poll of Republicans. He will be added next time (and others, like Mike Bloomberg, will be eliminated).2. Mitt Romney is the candidate both Republicans and our panel want more than all others. As I pointed out in earlier post , this is one sign of the panel’s centrist streak.3. As more than one poll had demonstrated in recent days , Sarah Palin, while visibly the most attention-grabbing candidate in the field, will have hard time winning general election against Obama. This is also true when Israel Factor numbers are considered. Obama gets a 5 to Palin’s 3.87 (all the numbers are here ).4. On the other hand, Obama also leads Romney in most polls of American voters, as you can see in this table:In The Israel Factor survey,Obama trails Romney, Huckabee and Gingrich.