Nov-05-2009Huckabee, Romney, Palin: 2012 Republican prospects
(topic overview)
CONTENTS:SOURCESFIND OUT MORE ON THIS SUBJECTPRINCETON, NJ -- Looking ahead to the 2012 presidential election, 71% of Republicans say they would seriously consider voting for Mike Huckabee. This gives Huckabee a slight edge over Mitt Romney (65%) and Sarah Palin (65%) in this early test of the strength of several potential Republican contenders. A majority of Republicans also say they would seriously consider voting for Newt Gingrich, but far fewer say they are currently ready to support the lesser-known Tim Pawlenty or Haley Barbour. These results are based on a USA Today/ Gallup poll conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 1. While this question allows respondents to express their level of support for each of the potential candidates, the three front-runners that emerge are the same as
when Gallup in July asked respondents which potential candidate they were most likely to support. "Thirty-three percent of Americans would seriously consider voting for Palin, but about the same number -- 31% -- believe she is qualified to be president." The poll suggests that the appeal of these potential challengers to Barack Obama in 2012 at this point is primarily limited to the Republican faithful. Among all Americans, Huckabee and Romney perform better than the other Republicans tested, but only about 4 in 10 Americans say they would consider voting for either. The overall numbers are depressed in part because no more than 20% of Democrats say they would consider voting for any of the candidates (Romney 20%, Huckabee 18%, Pawlenty 11%, and Palin 10%). Those low figures are understandable given that typically about 10% of party identifiers wind up voting for the opposition's candidate in presidential elections.
[1] Mike Huckabee leads the GOP pack for the party's presidential nomination in 2012 when Republicans were asked who they would "seriously consider," with 71 percent, according to a USA Today/Gallup poll conducted Oct. 31-Nov. 1. Most other polls looking ahead to 2012 have had Huckabee in the lead, although this one, by asking whether Republicans would "seriously consider" a candidate, was not worded in the straight-up who-would-you-choose language. The three front-runners in this poll were the same as in a
July Gallup survey that asked Republicans whom they were most likely to support, although in that poll the pecking order was Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin and Huckabee in third. In the more recent USA Today/Gallup survey, Romney and Palin are tied for second with 65 percent of respondents saying they would seriously consider them, and 60 percent would consider Newt Gingrich. After that, the other potential GOP candidates trail off, with 48 percent saying they would not seriously consider Tim Pawlenty, compared to 32 percent who would; and 52 percent saying they would not seriously consider Haley Barbour, compared to 26 percent who would.
[2] Republicans Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney and Sarah Palin all could stake strong claims to campaign for their party'''s presidential nomination in 2012, a Gallup Poll shows today. Gallup finds the potential standing among the public of these former governors, who all set their sights on presidential tickets in 2008, is not as strong.
[3] Former Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said Wednesday that his party's election victories was no off-year fluke and that congressional Democrats face more losses because voters are increasingly dissatisfied with how Democrats are running the country. "This was like having a 98 mph fastball lobbed right at your head if you're a Democrat in Congress," said Mr. Huckabee, a former Arkansas governor and now Fox News commentator. He also said the fact that independent voters sided with Republican candidates proves the dissatisfaction is widespread and beyond party politics. "The big picture was there was a lot of anger and hostility among independents who said, 'We're not getting the change we voted for.' It was a huge blow back not just to the White House, but for Congress," he told The Washington Times' "American's Morning News" radio show. He said that Republicans had good candidates in the local races but that voters also went to the polls because they were dissatisfied with such issues as the large federal deficit, high unemployment and increasing government intervention.
[4] Huckabee (40%) and Romney (40%) tie for the lead in potential support among independents, followed by Palin (32%) and Gingrich (28%). In addition to gauging potential support for each candidate, the poll also asked Americans to say whether they think each is qualified to be president. Huckabee and Romney are the leaders in this respect, with about half of the public saying each is qualified. More Americans believe Huckabee (50%) and Romney (49%) are qualified to be president than say they would seriously consider voting for them (40% and 39%, respectively). The same is true for Gingrich, although there is a wider gap between the percentage who believe he is qualified (44%) and the percentage who would seriously consider supporting him (29%). That is not the case for Palin, however. Thirty-three percent of Americans would seriously consider voting for her, but about the same number -- 31% -- believe she is qualified to be president. Republicans are more likely to say they would seriously consider voting for Palin for president (65%) than to say she is qualified for the job (58%). A majority of Republicans believe each of the four higher-profile candidates is qualified to be president, including 7 in 10 who say this about Huckabee, Romney, and Gingrich. Independents and Democrats are not convinced, as less than half of both party groups believe any of the Republican candidates has the proper credentials to be president.
[1] Unlike Palin, who endorsed on Facebook the losing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in New York's 23 rd district, Huckabee stayed on the sidelines without even a single tweet. He was troubled by Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava's liberal views on social issues (pro-abortion rights and gay marriage), but he was not willing to join Hoffman's third party uprising that drove Scozzafava from the race. "I feel sorry for people like Newt Gingrich, who was just excoriated over his support for Dede," Huckabee said, casting his lot with the practical politicians. As for Palin, whose neon-lit celebrity appears to irk Huckabee, he sniffed, "She apparently did not have a big impact on the ultimate outcome."
[5] After centrist Republican Dede Scozzafava dropped out of the race, Romney's Free and Strong PAC sent a $5,000 donation "last-minute" donation to Conservative Party Hoffman.'' Hoffman earned the backing of the national conservative grassroots and other 2012 GOP presidential hopefuls such as Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) and ex-Gov. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska).
[6] After intraparty warfare pushed the GOP nominee from the race, the Democrat won. "The Republicans fumbled the ball, and the Democrats jumped on it in the end zone," he says. The GOP prospects for 2012 are producing a spate of books these days in Huckabee's case, A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories That Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit, published Tuesday. Former Alaska governor Sarah Palin's memoir of her experiences as the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, Going Rogue, will be unveiled in two weeks.
[7] If you want to run for president in 2012, write a book. All three of the top potential GOP candidates--Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Mitt Romney--will be going on book tours to promote theirs between now and the 2010 elections, a time where they'll be looking to beef up their influence and image, take in PAC donations, and generally get some face time out in America, where they'll have to campaign for real, sooner or later, if they want to be president of the United States. We've heard a lot recently about Sarah Palin's " Going Rogue: An American Life," and the publicity tour she announced yesterday on her Facebook page. It'll include book signings across the nation (Palin says she "hope to cover as much of the country as I can") plus, she also hopes, appearances on Bill O'Reilly, Barbara Walters, Sean Hannity, Greta Van Susteren, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Miller, Tammy Bruce, and others. Huckabee, meanwhile, is promoting his Christmas book, " A Simple Christmas: Twelve Stories that Celebrate the True Holiday Spirit." He's doing a 60-city signing tour, mostly through the South and Midwest, which is already underway (if you're in the DC area, he'll be at the Costco in Pentagon City today from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m.), plus media appearances.
[8] Before Sarah Palin became the embodiment of the conservative grassroots, another national candidate from a state beginning with "A" mastered 21 st century Republican populism on his way to winning the 2008 Iowa caucuses. During the campaign, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the funniest Republican since the heyday of Bob Dole, would go off on little-guy riffs like this: "If you're a person for whom'summer' is a verb, if you went to Harvard or Yale, you probably think the economy is doing just dandy."
[5] The more we find out about Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, John McCain's running mate, the more comfortable we are with her. With every disclosure she sounds more and more like our own governor for 10 years, Mike Huckabee, who got passed over for the vice presidential nomination despite his having five times her executive experience.
[9] Huckabee, ex-Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), and ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) were
selected as the top three GOPers whom Republican respondents would "seriously consider supporting" in the next presidential contest. Seventy-one percent of people polled selected Huckabee; 65 percent selected both Romney and Palin.
[10] Huckabee and Romney lost their 2008 bids for the Republican presidential nomination to John McCain, but each can now, along with Palin, be considered one of the early front-runners for the 2012 GOP nomination.
[1] Although most Republicans currently regard Romney, Huckabee, and even Gingrich as more qualified than Palin, the former Alaska governor maintains a strong appeal among Republicans. Her popularity among the party's base -- Palin's 72% favorable rating in July well exceeded those for Romney (56%) and Huckabee (59%) among Republicans -- to a large degree seems to offset any deficit she has in perceived experience.
[1] Palin is seen as unqualified by a 2-1 ratio, 62%-31% including a negative rating by a third of Republicans, two-thirds of independents and eight in 10 Democrats. Huckabee calls his new book non-political. It is an attempt, he says, to encourage readers to connect with their families and the holidays by focusing on such fundamental values as patience, hope and faith. He illustrates his themes with anecdotes from his own life, including several that were staples of his stump speech during his 2008 campaign. The questions he parries as he begins to promote the book are mostly political, including at a breakfast Wednesday with reporters hosted by The Christian Science Monitor and an interview with USA TODAY. He says it's too early for polls to mean much but calls his standing "flattering." The 2012 election won't be easy for the GOP, he says.
[7] Asked about the vicious Republican divisions in Tuesday's upstate New York House election (23 rd Congressional District) won by the Democrats, Huckabee said, "Politics is not theology.
[5] The unemployment benefits extension passed the Senate yesterday, which Huffington Post says is a defeat for the GOP.'' Drudge banners with "We Won Last Night" keying in on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) claim that her party emerged victorious in Tuesday's elections despite the fact Republicans won gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia.
[6] Romney mainly steered clear of the hotly contested New York special House election that pitted factions of the Republican Party against one another.
[6] Sixty percent of Republican respondents also said they would support former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.). Lesser-known potential candidates Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) and Republican Governors Association Chairman and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour brought up the rear; they received 32 and 26 percent support, respectively.
[10] Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is scheduled to bring out No Apology: The Case for American Greatness next March. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich is hawking To Try Men's Souls: A Novel of George Washington and the Fight for American Freedom, a book he co-authored that was published last month. The group may have drawn a lesson from President Obama about the political value of being a successful author: His best-selling The Audacity of Hope and Dreams from My Father helped launch his long-shot campaign.
[7] WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama is inviting Native American leaders to a White House conference on Nov. 5. The president says he wants to hear directly from them about how his administration can. WASHINGTON -The White House says President Barack Obama woke up to the news that he had won the Nobel Peace Prize a little before 6 a.m. Press secretary Robert Gibbs learned from reporters that Obama.
[5] Curt Levy writes on President Barack Obama's short lived realignment.'' Robert Gibbs is wrong to not call N.Y.-23 a local election like he called the New Jersey and Virginia governor's races, says John Hanlon.
[6] WASHINGTON - Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee dismisses talk of a Republican front-runner for the 2012 presidential race as meaningless. "It's like speculating who's going to be the best actor next year when we don't even know what the movies are," he says. Not that he's sorry it seems to be him, at least at the moment.
[7] Television personality and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee led a batch of 2012 Republican presidential hopefuls in the latest poll from Gallup.
[10] Since 1986, 175 people who were not the nominees of either major party have been elected to state office. Back on July 7, 2007, Huckabee said if he became the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, he would be willing to participate in general election presidential debates that included minor party and independent candidates who were on the ballot in enough states to theoretically win.
[11] Now we learn that Palin raised taxes as mayor of the little town of Wasilla and in eight years raised total spending by 63 percent and office furniture and equipment by 117 percent and ran the city's long-term debt from nothing to $18.6 million. Campaigning for governor, she condemned the governor's plan to raise taxes on oil and gas companies by tying the severance tax to their windfall profits, and also opposed his plan to authorize a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope across Canada to the lower 48 states. Once elected, she embraced and signed the windfall profits tax on the oil companies and promoted the pipeline project, pledging $500 million from Alaska taxpayers to help a Canadian energy company build it. Now from the Washington Post we learn that Gov. Palin billed the taxpayers for 312 days of lodging and expenses for living in her own home and for the travel of family members in her first 18 months as governor. For a couple of years, until the state Ethics Committee stopped him, Gov. Huckabee paid for his family's personal expenses in their government-provided home from a state account, claimed furniture gifts to the Mansion as his own and solicited going-away gifts when he finally left the Mansion. It seems never to have occurred to him to claim per-diem expenses for the days he actually spent working for the people as Palin did. Give her credit for being a little shrewder than our boy. In still another way he was more frugal than she.
[9] Huckabee campaigned for governor and for president as a fiscal hardliner who slashed taxes and shrank government. He had raised more taxes than any governor in the state's history, ran up more debt than all the previous governors combined, grew state employees by 19 percent and greatly enlarged government welfare programs.
[9] Fifty percent of all respondents said that Huckabee is qualified to be president and 49 percent said the same of Romney.
[10] The numbers drop off for Palin, whom 31 percent of respondents said was qualified to be president. The three front-runners remained the same as in a July Gallup poll that asked respondents which candidate they were likely to support.
[10] The poll showed that several contenders have broad-based support among Republicans, but are not as well-received among the broader population. Only 40 percent of all respondents said they would "seriously consider" supporting Huckabee, the top-ranked Republican, in 2012.
[10] When the question is asked of all Americans, not just Republicans, Huckabee narrowly edges Romney on the "seriously consider" scale by 40 percent to 39 percent.
[2] Huckabee and Romney each earned 40 percent, while Palin received 32 percent support from the bloc.
[10] Huckabee is the only potential GOP candidate who could take significant votes away from Obama.Palin and more Right wing candidates are too extreme and do not appeal to more than a fringe element.People simply do not like Mitt Romney.Jindahl and Pawlenty are just not well known.Huckabee does not fill his rhedoric with hate speach or does he rely on slogans that just become punchlines,He seems like a nice man and although I'm sure he is quite conservative he does not scare moderates like the Palin Teaparty crowd does.
[5] You GOP'ers would be well advised to put your stock in guys like Huckabee instead of beeing all googly over people like the dipstick with lipstick. or tokyo rush limpbaugh cause at least this man acts like he has a clue to what the problems are to main stream america and doesnt sound like a total idiot when his lips move. Am not a republican but i know an idiot when i see or hear one and those other two fit the bill to the hilt.Ive seen people on here say the GOP can do better than Huckabee and if so that is fine.
[5] Huckabee cheers GOP victories Tuesday in gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia but says Republicans have only themselves to blame for losing the contest in New York's 23rd Congressional District an area represented in Congress by Republicans for more than a century.
[7] GOP tops all three statewide elections in new Clarus Poll WASHINGTON, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Two weeks before Virginia's voters cast their ballots, Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob.
[2] Former Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.) on Wednesday promoted a round of Republican victories in last night's elections in a letter to supporters. The 2012 presidential hopeful plugged the triumphs of Republican gubernatorial candidates Bob McDonnell (Va.) and Chris Christie (N.J.), emphasizing that his political action committee's endorsement and campaign work for the two candidates.''
[6] One could argue that Romney did what you would expect the establishment Republican candidate to do -- and this suggests a different Romney from the one who ran in the 2008 primaries. It looked for a while in late October as if everyone who wanted to prove his or her conservative bona fides was talking about Hoffman.
[9] I think the Newt's and the Romney's of the Republican party are exactly the problem. Americans are still overwhelmingly and unapologetically conservative in their politics, yet we have these thick-skulled "Republicans" running as wolves in sheeps clothing. I say we call them what they really are- progressive Democrats running on Republican lines.
[9] The dismal poll rating among independents for the leading Republican candidates may create an opening for Michael Steele. He's a proven fundraiser with what appears to be increasingly broad support in the party.
[10] No more than 40 percent of independents would "seriously consider" supporting any Republican candidate.
[10] 
51 percent would not seriously consider Huckabee or Romney, and all the others are above 60 percent by that measure. [2] Huckabee was considered qualified by 50 percent to 36 percent and Romney by 49 percent to 39 percent.
[2] In poll responses on whether the prospects are "qualified to be president," only Huckabee reaches the 50% watermark; Romney is just behind, at 49%.
[7] I'm not going to get focused on it at all until 2010 is over." All this is boilerplate, the kind of mechanical denials that invariably invite skepticism. A few minutes later, Huckabee, a politician who is apparently making serious money for the first time in his career, said something about running for president again that had the ring of (gasp!) truth. "And it's one of the great frustrations. It's one of the reasons why I'm not jumping up and down and saying I'm going to run again. It's not only campaign money. It's that you need a lot of personal money to run. Huckabee - who is still waiting for a scientific consensus about the reality of global warming - will never be confused with Al Gore, who grew a rebellious beard after his heartbreak-house 2000 election loss. It was telling that Huckabee, unlike almost all the reporters, did not deign to wear a tie to the Monitor breakfast. Afterwards, when I asked him about his sartorial choice, the 2008 White House dreamer replied, "I'm just enjoying that I don't have to wear a tie.
[5] A really like Huckabee and agree with many of his opinions. I believe he is a 6000 year-old earth person. There may be some concern about this archaic belief and others such as the imminent "end times". Not sure this is what we need in White House.
[5] Proves my point. The libs would never tell us to support someone that actually could beat them. Thats why they tell us to back Huckabee, McCain, Lyndsy Graham, and other moderates. We need someone that is a stark difference to the Democrat Party, not someone that wants to compromise and work with them. Giving the radical marxists in the Democrat party, even a little bit of what they want, is a loss for our sovereignty of our country, and the freedom of our children and grandchildren. NO MORE MODERATES!! A moderate is just someone that has not yet made up their mind what they believe in. They will be influenced by the media, to do what makes them most popular. We need someone that stands by the conviction of their beliefs, and is not afraid to tell us what they are.
[5] If you believe the dipstick with lipstick or the Tokyo rose clone on the radio is your answer y'all gonna be on the outside lookin in again and crying all over the place like now. You need a candidate with a clue to every day america's problems and not just someone who thinks it should be their way or the high way cause you not gonna like that ride down the road when its all said and done if thats the route your party takes.Get some fresh new faces in there with some fresh new idea's and not some fool that sounds like a kook when they speak.
[5] Slowly it is but still it is happening still and if the GOP is to have any chance during the 2012 election your party needs a viable candidate to go up against Obama.
[5] The Republicans can do better than Huckabee. They need a strong, uniting and saavy nominee to face Obama.
[5] Politics is not as pure. It never has been. It never will be." The problem, Huckabee concedes, is that Republican purists want a litmus test party as they say, in effect, "It has to be just like me - and nothing but."
[5] The only guy on Fox that is worth a damn is Andrew Napolitano. He was on government radio, aka NPR, today spouting the same clap trap. One has to wonder if Mr. Huckabee is going to change his tune when the Republican Party becomes a minor-sized party (just around 2012, if my prediction comes true).
[11] With four 2012 Presidential polling wins in just the last 3 months, Mike Huckabee is leading the way for conservatives to mount an all out comeback win in 2010 and 2012. Conservatives are no longer sitting on the sidelines, they are "energized".
[5] Thousands of Huckabee Fans around the nation, from the North, South, East and West that span 50 States and a unprecedented amount of 418 Counties and growing continue to expand at a accelerated rate. Great Orators like: Ronald Reagan, Mike Huckabee, Winston Churchill and Vince Lombardi can get the masses to rise to their feet with enthusiastic energy to go out for the win.
[5] Huckabee seems in no rush to overtly join the 2012 jousting. "I'm loving what I'm doing," he said, referring to his books, his Fox News show, and a radio show on ABC. "I know that people think that I'm doing everything I'm doing to set up for 2012. It's really not the case.
[5] Romney could have very easily joined in -- in a press release, in a Fox News appearance, even on National Review Online. Romney didn't really see a way he could be constructive in the race.
[9] Romney declined to support Scozzafava. That's sufficient for this conservative. Romney has been actively campaigning for McDonnell in VA and Christie in NJ, and endorsing strong candidates such as Portman in OH and Toomey in PA for their 2010 races.
[9] We haven't heard as much about Mitt Romney, who has a book called " No Apology: The Case for American Greatness," to come out in March. We should be proud of what we have accomplished together; but this is no time to rest on our laurels. We must begin building upon these victories today to ensure that we have the resources we need to take back the Congress in 2010.
[8] "The American people have sent a very strong message to the liberals in Washington, DC that big government is not the answer, and that conservatism is still alive and well." Romney then requested supporters donate to his PAC. "We should be proud of what we have accomplished together; but this is no time to rest on our laurels," he wrote. "We must begin building upon these victories today to ensure that we have the resources we need to take back the Congress in 2010."
[6] President Barack Obama may be in electoral trouble in 2010 because of a failure of civic leadership, pmcarpenter says. Fox News' claim that their news segments are unbiased is "as thin as the pastrami in a New York City deli," Chad writes. The Obamaa administration has backtracked on their "change" slogan, John Aravosis writes.
[6] A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Saturday and Sunday puts the preacher-turned-politician, who is also a host of a weekend talk show on Fox News Channel, at the top of a list of prospective GOP contenders.
[7] SOURCES1.
Huckabee, Romney, Palin See Most Republican Support for '122.
Handicapping the Race for the 2012 GOP Presidential Nomination -- Politics Daily3.
Huckabee, Romney, Palin: 2012 Republican prospects | D.C. Now | Los Angeles Times4.
Huckabee: Election results prove widespread dissatisfaction - Washington Times5.
Mike Huckabee: Another White House Whirl in 2012? -- Politics Daily6.
Romney touts Republican victories in fundraising letter - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room7.
Huckabee leads Republican prospects in poll - USATODAY.com8.
They've All Got Books - The Atlantic Politics Channel9.
Romney skips NY-23 - Ben Smith - POLITICO.com10.
Poll: Huckabee leads 2012 GOP hopefuls - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room11.
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