REPUBLICANS MAY BE NOT-SO-FAVORED FAVORITE SONS

Republicans thinking about running for president are not playing as well at home as are their Democratic counterparts.

That's the key finding in exit polling done by CBS News and released today by the network.

As voters left the polling places earlier this month, CBS exit pollers asked them if they thought a specific favorite-son candidate would make a good president.

The names of eight Republicans were put forth to voters in the home states of the presidential wanna-bees, and in only on case did the majority of voters say their local pol would be a good president.

That was in Arizona, where 48% of voters said they thought John McCain would make a good president, while 41% said they thought he would not.

None of the other seven candidates - the usual names (Giuliani, Romney, Hagel, Frist etc...) - won the support of voters in their state. Rudy Giuliani was the only other potential candidate to come close, with 47% of New Yorkers saying the former New York City mayor would make a good president and 51% saying he would not.

Among Republican voters only, all but two favorite-son candidates won approval of their state's voters. The two who didn't - Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel who has not been a good soldier for the Bush administration and New York Gov. George Pataki who just doesn't seem to have struck a chord with voters.

DEM FAVORITE SON'S (AND DAUGHTER) MORE POPULAR AT HOME

The story is somewhat different on the Democratic side. Three of the five Democrats who were named in the poll, were favored by a majority of those polled in their home state, while all five did well among voters in their party.

The most solid performer among the Democrats was Sen. Barack Obama. Some 64% of Illinois voters of all stripes thought Obama would make a good president, while just 29% said he would not.

Click here to see the full PDF of results.