A Gallup poll released yesterday showed that Republicans’ feelings about former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are about the same as in early 2008, and enthusiasm for any of the current GOP presidential hopefuls is lower than that for Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) in his White House run.
The sample of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents was asked if they would vote for each candidate “enthusiastically”: 35 percent said they would for Romney, 34 percent for Santorum and 28 percent for Gingrich.
In the same polling conducted Jan. 30 – Feb. 2, 2008, 35 percent would vote enthusiastically for Romney and 47 percent would for McCain.
Voters were also asked if their vote for a certain candidate would be mainly against Obama. The results were 42 percent for Romney, 40 percent for Santorum and 41 percent for Gingrich.
Other options receiving a range of 8 percent to 16 percent across the board were voting for Obama or staying home and not voting. These were all higher than the 2008 numbers.
“Republicans are also less enthusiastic about voting for their party’s current pool of candidates than Democrats were about voting for their potential nominees in both 2008 and in 2004,” wrote Frank Newport of Gallup. “More than half of Democrats in 2008 said they would vote ‘enthusiastically’ for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton if either were to win their party’s presidential nomination. Forty-five percent of Democrats in late January/early February 2004 said they would vote enthusiastically for John Kerry for president.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member