Poll: 20% of Republicans likely to re-elect Obama

A shocking poll recently released by a conservative publication found that a large number of Republicans and conservatives are likely to vote for President Barack Obama.

The survey, conducted by Wenzel Strategies for World Net Daily, showed that one in five Republicans are leaning towards or would "definitely" re-elect the current president.

In contests against former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Obama got more than 20 percent of support from Republicans. In a matchup with Texas Congressman Ron Paul, 19 percent of Republicans chose the president.

"Obama has largely avoided the political limelight while the GOP candidates savage each other with increasing intensity. Second, a smattering of evidence indicates that the economy is getting a little better, which helps the White House in the eyes of the voters," pollster Fritz Wenzel told World Net Daily. "[T]he bloody fight for the Republican presidential nomination – by most estimations the nastiest GOP fight in memory – has really hurt the images of the challengers in the eyes of both Republicans and, especially, independent voters. For Republicans, each candidate carries with them now some taint that cannot be ignored."

"What must be particularly alarming to every Republican campaign regarding this nasty fight is that, even among those who say they think the nation is heading in the wrong direction, Obama still wins at least 20 percent support in head-to-head match-ups against the four remaining Republicans, and among those who said they were unsure about the overall direction of the nation, Obama wins by overwhelming percentages," he added.

Obama also did well with self-identified conservative voters. Against each of the remaining Republican frontrunners, 20 percent or more were likely to re-elect the president. Even among very conservative voters, nearly 20 percent or more were at least leaning towards the current White House resident.

While Wenzel Strategies is a largely unknown polling firm, they successfully helped then-candidate Rand Paul to win a seat in the Senate in 2010.