2012: Huckabee Leads Republicans, Best Against Obama; Romney Leads New Hampshire
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
September 17, 2010
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — A new poll from the Public Policy Polling institute finds pro-life former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is the only potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate currently leading pro-abortion President Barack Obama.
The poll has Huckabee leading by a 47 to 44 percent margin while Obama is ahead of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney 46-43 percent, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich 47-43 percent, former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin 49-43 percent and conservative television commentator Glenn Beck 48-39 percent.
"Huckabee is the only candidate we polled this month to post positive favorability numbers, at 35/32, the firm said of the possible 2012 GOP candidate. "That’s because he’s relatively inoffensive to Democrats with only 44% having an unfavorable opinion of him."
"Mitt Romney’s favorability numbers are only slightly negative at 33/35. The rest of the GOP folks are highly unpopular with Beck’s favorability at 31/41, Palin’s at 38/52, and Gingrich’s at 30/50," the polling firm found.
The poll also asked respondents whether people would vote for Obama in 2012 or vote for his Republican opponent and that came out dead even at 47%.
The polling firm said that shows Palin and Gingrich are running worse than the average Republican candidate and it says Obama may have a chance to bounce back from what are already seen as weak numbers — indicating a tough 2012 presidential election campaign is forthcoming.
"The takeaway from this poll is about the same as every month- Obama’s pretty weak but his likely opposition is pretty darn weak too and particularly in the cases of Gingrich and Palin weaker than him," the firm said.
Meanwhile, Mitt Romney continues to look like the overwhelming early favorite for the 2012 Republican primary in New Hampshire, the second state in the presidential coronation process.
He leads with 41% to 12% for Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, 10% for Mike Huckabee, 8% for Ron Paul, 5% for Tim Pawlenty, and 2% for Mitch Daniels.
"The best news in the poll for Romney is that at least in New Hampshire he has a strong advantage with every different faction of the party," PPP said.
"With voters who identify themselves as Tea Party members he leads Palin 36-18. He also has a 29-18 advantage over her with people who think the GOP’s too liberal. At the same time he’s up 47-15 on Gingrich with people who think the party’s just fine ideologically and he leads Ron Paul 47-10 with moderates," it noted.
With Romney leading the race in New Hampshire, the polling firm speculates some presidential candidates may ignore New Hampshire and focus their resources on other states where they may have a chance to see their standing improve, such as Iowa, South Carolina and Florida.
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