With Mike Huckabee out of the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, three well-known politicians, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich, emerge as leaders in Republicans’ preferences. Republicans, however, have less intensely positive feelings about these three than they did about Huckabee. Two less well-known potential candidates, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, generate high levels of enthusiasm among Republicans who recognize them.
All in all, the basic pattern is clear: The most well-known candidates lead in nomination support at this point, while those who are not as well-known lag behind.
Botton line, at this juncture, there is no clear front-runner in the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.
Read more from Frank Newport at Gallup