Gallup: Huckabee Looking Good For 2012
Found this little nugget in a piece about Huck in the Politico today.
Apparently he’s leading the pack with GOPers…
Gallup’s survey of Republicans found that 71 percent would consider voting for him, more than for Palin, Romney or others. The same survey found that he’s the only Republican whom even 50 percent of Americans say they think is qualified to be president.
And here are the numbers from Gallup…
First, would you vote for a specific candidate?
Then, is the candidate qualified?
Yet more bad news for Palin on that one, and it’s unlikely she’ll ever be able to undo the damage she did to her image last year.
But let’s get back to Huck, specifically his character. Here’s an interesting sidenote in that Politico piece on the Club For Growth…
Huckabee met in the spring with Pat Toomey, then the president of the Wall Street-backed Club for Growth, which had attacked him during the 2008 campaign for raising taxes in Arkansas.
“It wasn’t very productive,” he said of the meeting. “I realized then that these guys are just what I thought they were — they’re pay for play, and they do it anonymously on behalf of people who don’t want to be known as the funders of these hit operations. I find that repulsive.”
No surprise there, but a round of applause for Huck’s bluntness. That’s what I like about him: he’s honest. Well, as honest as any politician can be.
And while I don’t agree with a lot of what he says, I think he’d make good decisions if given all the facts. This alone makes him formidable in 2012. But would he be able to split the evangelical base with Palin and still beat Romney? Perhaps…and it would be the Ron Paul crowd he could attract with his Fair Tax idea and getting rid of the IRS.
I can’t wait to find out.
Here’s the question: If you had to vote for a Republican in 2012, who would it be and why?
(Photo: AP via Daylife)
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I would vote for Mike Huckabee in a heartbeat. He’s a great common sense individual. I, frankly don’t understand why some conservative commentators don’t think he’s conservative enough.
Most of the damage that was done last year to Palin’s image was the fault of McCain and his campaign advisors. There was no contest. She outshined McCain. In fact, I know so many people, including my husband and I, who only voted for McCain because Palin was on the ticket.
McCain’s campaign certainly didn’t help, Palin was CLEARLY out of her depth and not ready to be a heartbeat away from the Oval Office. Sure, she can rile up a crowd, but that’s not enough. If she’s smart she’ll save her party the embarrassment of running in 2012 b/c there’s zero chance she could win…as is evidenced by the numbers above.
In response to another comment. See in context »[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Justin Gardner, Tweets Tube. Tweets Tube said: Gallup: Huckabee Looking Good For 2012 http://bit.ly/3kHSMB [...]
It’s always frustrating to keep seeing journalists who think Ron Paul supports the Fair Tax. He doesn’t, and neither do the vast majority of his supporters. This keeps coming up every time someone muses on how Ron Paul supporters might support Huckabee. We won’t. Note that Dr. Paul was not included in this poll.
Hello Justin,
It is still only 2009. In 2005 who would have picked an obscure politician from Illinois with no national exposure not only to gain the Democratic nomination but win the presidency? In 1997 who would have picked a one term governor from Texas to win the Republican nomination and the White House in 2000.
I like Huckabee. Of the candidates listed in the poll, he’s my pick – and primarily because I think he’s honest and would, as you say, make the right choice if given all the facts. That said, David has a point. It’s still a long ways off from the 2012 election – even though tires are already starting to spin.
As a moderate, just a moderate, not a moderate repub, or a moderate demo…
I like Huckabee as well. I was surprised when McCain got the nod over him and Romney both. Although, I really do think McCain was the lame duck candidate in a race, at a time, the GOP probably figured they had no shot in winning.
Huckabee would be a good challenge for Obama. Although, with the independant and moderate crowds, not sure his shows on Fox will help him too much. I mean, the “Young Neo-Con” rappers?? He should never be allowed to live that one down.
DavidLA,
Didn’t Obama give a rousing DNC speech in 2004 that earned him some significant fame? I don’t think it’s safe to say he was obscure in 2005. He had a lot of buzz coming out of the Kerry convention.
Hello Steve Vockrodt,
Speach or no, no one said, “Ah this guy is going beat Mark Edwards and Hillary Clinton in the primaries and be in the White House in 2009″.
In response to another comment. See in context »Well, I’m not a Republican, but if I had to choose a Republican to vote for, it would probably be Joe Lieberman.
Thanks misterB, I had a nice laugh at that.
In response to another comment. See in context »That “Ron Paul crowd” attracted to the FairTax is a bit off Justin. Yes, we have plenty of Libertarians but unlike almost any other issue campaign I can think of, we have a lot of everybody else. And why not? The income tax system is not only unbelievably and expensively complex (67,500 pages of regs costing $300 billion last year in compliance costs alone)but both Republicans and Democrats on Congressional tax writing committees jealously guard the commonplace corruption that allows pieces of the tax code to be sold off every day to an army of well heeled tax lobbyists. The income tax orginally won public support in 1912 as a populist measure (with Teddy Roosevelt) and its simple and fair replacement, the FairTax, will win the same way albeit without Teddy. It’s populist lightning that burned Mitt in Iowa but which Huck captured to fuel his surprising victory there. Both outcomes are likely to happen again to candidates on either side of the idea.