/ 4 May 2011

Survey: US voters sour on Palin, Trump presidency

Survey: Us Voters Sour On Palin

Voters show little enthusiasm for any of the potential Republican presidential candidates in 2012, and some like Sarah Palin and Donald Trump are encountering outright rejection, a poll released on Wednesday found.

Leading the group were Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, who drew enthusiastic support from 15% and 13% of the voters respectively, the poll by Quinnipiac University found.

Other Republican candidates such as Minnesota’s Tim Pawlenty, libertarian congressman Ron Paul and former House speaker Newt Gingrich were well behind them.

At the same time, 58% of those polled said they would never vote for either Palin or Trump, by far the most negative showings of any of the potential candidates.

“It is difficult to get a handle on the 2012 Republican race. Many contenders are not well known and many who are known are not liked, making their candidacies problematic. You could call this the ‘No Way’ measure,” said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

“Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are in the best shape. Sarah Palin and Donald Trump suffer from the reality that, as our mothers told us, ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression’.”

The survey was conducted among 1 406 voters between April 26 and May 1. It had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.6%. — AFP