Poll: GOP's 2012 contenders unknown, unloved

CBSNews.com ^ | 04/21/2011 | Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto

[OldDeckHand]

It's early yet, but the Grand Old Party clearly has its work cut out to sell the voting American public on a candidate to challenge President Obama in the 2012 national election.

A 56 percent majority of Republican voters told a CBS News/New York Times poll that none of the names officially or unofficially in the hat at this stage made them feel enthusiastic as potential nominees.

[SoDak]

Not too surprising looking at this list of has-beens and never-was’s.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

No, you just support Mitch Daniels.

[SMM48]

How in the hell does the Huckster lead in most of these type polls?

What are people thinking?

[Emperor Palpatine]

Elmer Gantry??? Worth reconsidering????????

He's a socialist fraud, lets murderers out of jail, is for amnesty, pushed gun-control legislation, raised a dog-killing lard-ass of a son, and is a lousy bassist.

[SoDak]

We learned that in 2008 as the people changed allegiance repeatedly as the field was narrowed down to McCain. First it was Hunter, then Fred, then finally Mitt, then the acceptance of McStain. I also learned that sometimes when the polls show you losing, you’re really losing, it ain’t all “special sauce”.

[TomGuy]

Not too surprising looking at this list of has-beens and never-was’s.

True. Retreads.

Did that in '96 and lost. Did it again in '08 and lost.

[OldDeckHand]

"What are people thinking?"

Most people aren't. That is to say, most people who are registered voters aren't very informed about specific issues or policies, and they aren't very familiar with the records of specific candidates. Instead, they decide things on emotion or feel. Sadly, their votes count just as much as yours, or mine and there are a LOT more of those kind of voters than our kind of voters. That's the political reality.

Huckabee, for all of his policy faults, comes across as a reasonable and measured guy. "People" - the great unwashed masses - love that kind of thing.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Huckabee's numbers are up there because of the myopic so-cons who think Matthew and Acts describes God-ordained socialism and listen to their idiot preachers instead of common sense.

[GlockThe Vote]

Bingo - those types disgust me to know end.

[reefdiver]

Got to keep an open mind, CBS can't be relied upon to deliver the facts. They got history, unfavorable to conservatives. Can't let the media select our candidate, again.

[RockinRight]

Which herd?

[RockinRight]

Yeah, I’m done reconsidering.

[Emperor Palpatine]

Unfortunately FR is infested with them like bedbugs in a cheap motel.

[chris_bdba]

I don’t like Huckabee and would not vote for him.

[screaminsunshine]

If they run the Huckster I am not voting Republican or Democrat.

[jessduntno]

“Sarah Palin is the only one over 50% UF among RV’s.”

She’s also the only one I would vote for.

[rintense]

Amen!!!

[TLI]

Sarah Palin is the only one over 50% UF among RV’s.

"among all registered voters" That includes the donks.

The details of the poll are bizarre. It states republicans were "over sampled" at 543 and the total interviewed was 1,224. That is only 44.3% republicans, not exactly "over sampled" by any definition I am aware of.

Then, the fun part... The results were then weighted in proportion to the average party distributions in previous 2011 CBS News and CBS News/New York Times Polls and in the random sample in this poll.

No info on exactly what percentages were applied. No info on locations.

Basically, it's worthless. Like See-BS itself.

.

[Huck]

I like Mitch Daniels. But I recognize he’s got no chance at all. Hell, I’m not even sure he’s running. But yeah, I think he’s pretty decent compared to the others.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

[This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,332 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone April 15-20, 2011. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. An oversample of Republicans was also conducted for this poll, for a total of 543 interviews among this group. The results were then weighted in proportion to the average party distributions in previous 2011 CBS News and CBS News/New York Times Polls and in the random sample in this poll. The margin of error for Republicans is plus or minus five percentage points.]