Harris Poll: "John McCain Seen as Most Influential Republican and as Leading Voice of the Party"
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unlike many other democracies, including those with parliamentary governments, the United States does not have a formal leader of the opposition.
However, a new Harris Poll finds that Senator John McCain, the losing Republican presidential candidate in 2008, is most widely perceived as an influential Republican leader and as a leading voice of the GOP.
Other Republican leaders who are viewed by many people as influential and as leading voices in the party include former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, McCain’s vice presidential running mate and former governor of Alaska Sarah Palin, and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
These six Republicans, all of whom would probably like to be the next Republican presidential candidate, are seen as about as influential as each other. But more people see Palin and Limbaugh as leading voices of the party, and Palin scores more highly among Republicans.
These are some of the results of The Harris Poll® of 2,276 adults surveyed online between December 7 and 14, 2009 by Harris Interactive®.
One interesting finding is that the differences between Republicans, Democrats and Independents as to who are influential and who are leading voices of the party are generally not large. However, Democrats are somewhat more likely to see McCain as a leading voice for the party, and Republicans are somewhat more likely to believe that Palin is influential, and is a leading voice.
The main findings are:
64% of all adults view McCain as influential, including 27% who think he has great influence.
Those numbers are higher than for other leading Republicans – Limbaugh (50% and 23%), Gingrich (50% and 18%), Romney (48% and 13%), Huckabee (47% and 13%), Palin (47% and 18%) or Giuliani (45% and 12%).
Other Republican leaders who are seen as influential by more than one-third of all adults include Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly (43% and 14%), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (41% and 13%), Fox News personality Glenn Beck (41% and 15%), House Minority Leader John Boehner (37% and 12%), Fox News personality Sean Hannity (37% and 12%), and former TV personality Lou Dobbs (34% and 8%).
Palin (24%) is mentioned more often than any other Republican apart from McCain (47%) as a leading voice in the Republican Party. Others mentioned by more than 10% are Limbaugh (21%), Huckabee (13%), Gingrich (12%), Romney (11%), and McConnell (11%).
Palin is more likely to be seen as influential by Republicans (59%) than by Democrats (39%)
So what?
Many of the Republican leaders mentioned as influential in this Harris Poll are potential presidential candidates in 2010.
Apart from John McCain, who some people think would be too old to be the Republican nominee, there is clearly no front-runner but, rather, a largish group of possible candidates, none of whom stands out. However, among Republicans Sarah Palin does have a lead over all the other Republicans, apart from McCain, as a leading voice for the party.
No comments:
Post a Comment