This CBS News poll (warning PDF) solely measured the favorable/unfavorable rating of the GOP/Democratic contenders. Rudy and McCain top the GOP list. Make sure to note Hillary’s favorable to unfavorable results:
CBS News Poll, January 1st-3rd, 2007. MOE +/-3 Percent
Republicans (Favorable/Unfavorable/Don’t Know Enough About to Have an Opinion)
Giuliani 41/22/36
McCain 39/20/41
Romney 5/10/85
Hagel 4/5/91
Brownback 3/6/90
Hunter 1/5/94
Democrats (Favorable/Unfavorable/Don’t Know Enough About to Have an Opinion)
Clinton 43/38/19
Edwards 34/21/44
Gore 32/46/21
Obama 28/10/61
Kerry 22/48/29
Biden 9/14/77
Richardson 7/8/85
Dodd 4/9/86
Kucinich 4/11/85
Vilsack 4/4/92
January 8th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
[...] Mayor Giuliani leads: [...]
January 8th, 2007 at 3:05 pm
Kavon, thanks for showing us exactly why horse race polls (as opposed to these “temperature” style polls) are completely useless 12 months away from the Iowa primary. 85% of Americans don’t know Romney, and he’s one of the Big Three. 44% don’t know enough about Edwards, and he ran for Veep last time around. 61% don’t know enough about the rock star Obama who’s supposed to be chasing Hillary’s crown.
Exactly why waiting a few more months until we actually know who’s running before putting too much stock in polls is a beneficial idea.
January 8th, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Two things stand out in my eyes in this poll, possibly for no other reason than it’s a slow night here at work tonight and I have very little else to think about right now.
First, Giuliani’s “don’t know him” numbers seem awfully high at 36%. Still very early, but that’s a bit worrisome, since even his misplaced campaign notes say there is still a lot for him to overcome in the next year or so. That means with most of his good points known to many (Sept 11th the obvious big one) and very little of his negatives discussed yet (all the juicy private life stories the MSM loves to report), he may have even more work cut out for him in the coming months. In other words, it’s more likely most of his “don’t know him” numbers shift over to the disapproval column.
The second thing I noticed is the quite high disapproval numbers for Al Gore, at 46%. Wow. That can’t be a good sign for him, even after all the good media he seems to get (not to mention his global warming mantra while here in the northeast we’re getting January temps in the 70s). And there’s still 21% who don’t know enough about him. That’s a lot of people he can still turn off. I never really thought he’d be jumping into this race, but still, not good numbers for Mr. Internet.