Mitt Romney’s impressive fundraising, recent hires, and growing list of endorsements don’t seem to have changed the polls just yet. According to Rassmussen, Romney’s ratings are 29 percent favorable, 35 percent unfavorable. In hypothetical match-ups, the former Massachusetts governor trails Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Barack Obama, and John Edwards by double digits. He is just a few points behind former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack.

It’s early to be focusing on the polls and the horse race. But it does make it more difficult for Romney to keep disenchanted conservatives from defecting to more idealistic longshots — Sam Brownback, Tom Tancredo, Duncan Hunter, even Ron Paul — or from settling for one of the frontrunners if there isn’t some evidence of electability.