The potential field of Republican Party presidential candidates represents a wide-ranging group of politicians with unique resumes and experiences. Putting their professional and geographic diversity aside, the Grand Old Party hopefuls are united on two things: a willingness to attack the Obama agenda and unwavering support for the Tea Party movement.

Business tycoon Donald Trump, former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Godfather’s Pizza executive Herman Cain, Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum, former Speaker Newt Gingrich, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, and Congressman Ron Paul are all working overtime courting Tea Party supporters. They are speaking at Tea Party rallies, adopting the movement’s talking points, and praising the Tea Party as the most significant force in modern American politics.

There is one colossal problem for all of these would-be nominees. The Tea Party movement does not represent the majority of American voters or even a majority of Republicans. The aforementioned candidates are preaching to a group of voters that, despite their fervor, lack the juice to either nominate a presidential candidate on their own or elect a candidate in a nationwide race in November 2012.

Remember the disastrous 2010 candidacies of Christine O’Donnell in Delaware, Joe Miller in Alaska, and Sharron Angle in Nevada? All talked the Tea Party lingo and ran on Tea Party platforms. All were defeated. The Republican presidential field could be trending in this direction.

A February CBS News poll found that only 20 percent of voters across the country identify as supporters of the Tea Party movement. Even more startling is that only 38 percent of registered Republican respondents identified with the Tea Party.

A mid-March CBS poll followed up on that question and discovered that 23 percent of all voters considered themselves Tea Party supporters while 64 percent did not. Similarly, a nationwide AP/GfK poll in late March found that 65 percent of those surveyed said that they do not consider themselves Tea Party enthusiasts while just 30 percent identified as such.

Lastly, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted between March 31 and April 4 found that 25 percent said they are Tea Party supporters, the lowest level of Tea Party support in the eight times NBC/Wall Street Journal has asked the question over the last seven months. Meanwhile, a new high of 67 percent said they were not Tea Party supporters. This figure is up eight points since last November’s midterm elections.

In a March 3 column I analyzed Gallup tracking poll data from all fifty states and showed that a candidate running on the far right can count on about 142 electoral votes from 15 states. This is visibly short of the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. Candidates who are perceived to be wedded to the Tea Party positions would likely thrive in these 15 states at the expense of the rest, running the risk of losing the 2012 election in a blowout.

The scorching Tea Party rhetoric being employed by the current field (with the exception of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, both of whom have remained relatively distant from Tea Party functions) indicates that these candidates are whistling past the graveyard and putting all of their 2012 eggs in the Tea Party basket.

They are overdosing on Tea and will be forced in a general election against Barack Obama to either accept their rhetorical excess during the Tea Party courtship process or walk back their statements. Neither option is pretty. Accepting the Tea Party rhetoric will lose moderate voters while walking it all back would jeopardize alienating the very bloc of voters they spent significant time, money, and political capital enticing.

The vast majority of the American electorate—to the tune of 67 percent in the most recent national survey—does not support with the Tea Party movement. Does appeasing a very vocal, somewhat irrational 25 percent of the total electorate that comprises just 38 percent of Republican voters make sense?  Republican presidential candidates ought to carefully avoid overindulging in Tea Party rhetoric and policy positions and remember that the bulk of the electorate lies outside of the Tea Party’s membership.

President Eisenhower said that “People talk about the middle of the road as though it were unacceptable. Actually, all human problems, excepting morals, come into the gray areas. Things are not all black and white. There have to be compromises. The middle of the road is all of the usable surface. The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.” The 2012 GOP field should heed Ike’s warning.