Versus just 24 percent who think it should be more like McCain. On whether the party has been too moderate or too conservative, it’s 43/17. No surprise there, but maybe one here:

Unaffiliated voters are much more closely divided. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say the party has been too conservative over the past eight years, while 34% think it’s been too moderate. For 14%, the party’s been about right, and 13% are undecided.

Regarding the future of the party, 46% of unaffiliated voters say follow Sarah Palin, while 26% like McCain…

For McCain, unaffiliateds break 10% Very Favorable and eight percent (8%) Very Unfavorable. But 35% of unaffiliated voters have a Very Favorable opinion of Palin, compared to 15% who have a Very Unfavorable view.

Conservatives might be overrepresented among unaffiliated/independents at the moment due to disaffection with Bush having driven them out of the tent. That would explain why Palin’s “very favorable” rating is so much higher than Maverick’s among a group normally thought of as centrist, which splits narrowly on whether the GOP’s been too conservative or too moderate. I figure nearly everyone who answered yes to the latter also gave Sarahcuda sky-high approval. Like, for example, the Nuge! Exit question one: Can we infer from this data that 55 percent of Republicans also think the GOP should be more like Huckabee? Exit question two: Time for a Democratic rethink on that Limbaugh strategy?