Tuesday, August 3, 2010

National Poll Time!

It's time for our monthly national poll this week which means we're taking suggestions on two things:

1) Who should be the 'bonus' Republican we test against Barack Obama in addition to the standards of Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich. We'll take your nominations for the next 24 hours or so and then put them to a vote. I'm open to anyone except Ron Paul and Jan Brewer, who we looked at the last two months.

2) And as always would love suggestions for creative questions that everyone else might not be asking.

Fire away!

45 comments:

  1. What about the favorables of the word "socialism" "liberal" "conservative" "moderate" "facist" "communist" etc. ?

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  2. Would love to see you ask a national question about marijuana legalization.

    "If your state had a ballot measure to legalize and regulate marijuana like alcohol would you vote yes or no?"

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  3. exempt rand paul to and poll Chris Christie

    also you should ask which of the last 5 president compare most to Obama

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  4. Thune - well-liked, conservative Senator who will coast to re-election. Should not be underestimated as a national candidate.

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  5. How about just 4 candidates and forget the bonus? It's like polling 5 Democrats including Barack and Hillary. Most candidates , like Jeb Bush, have said they are NOT interested.
    So, see what the 4 way split is for the majors

    Craig S

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  6. Really interested in Bush given that the Dems are trying to run against Dubya. If not Christie is an interesting case but probably doesn't have any name recognition.

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  7. You could give Scott Brown a shot. He seems to be keeping a pretty high profile and burst onto the scene very quickly. What does the national audience think of him compared to the other front-runners?

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  8. Still waiting to see how a socially moderate Republican like Rudy Giuliani would fare against Obama.

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  9. I second Rudy Giuliani. If you do Daniels, Jindal or Thune, people will once again say who? At least with Giuliani there is some name recognition and he is almost never polled.

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  10. I think you should poll Glenn Beck and see if the blind can lead the blind.

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  11. There's not really anyone else that has enough name recognition to be worth testing. Most people have no idea who Mitch Daniels is or John Thune is. I think it'd be interesting to test Obama vs. McCain in 2012. Obviously McCain won't run, but it might be interesting to see how the results compare to 2008's actual results.

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  12. Here's some I would find interesting:

    1) Scott Brown: He seems to strike me as someone who represents the prototypical Republican "moderate," and I think it would be intriguing to see how well he does in comparison to more conservative options. I don't think he would win a GOP primary (and probably won't even run) but just seeing how he fares against Obama would be interesting.

    2) Marco Rubio: Again, probably not someone who will run at least until 2016, but he already has a pretty robust national profile and also brings in the dynamic of having a Hispanic Conservative Republican. It would be interesting to see whether Hispanics stay home or support one of their own. AN alternative to him is Brian Sandoval

    3) John Thune: Thune has always struck me as your typical "generic Republican," having name recognition and charisma but not the unique and quirky profile of a Palin or a Romney. I'd like to see how removing the personalities associated with other Republicans would make the GOP fare against Obama

    4) Haley Barbour: Now that Sanford has been toasted, Jindal stopped showing interest, Pawlenty is gone after 2010, and Perry has done off the deepend, Barbour appears to be the Republican that will have the immediate executive experience in 2012

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  13. Rick Santorum is running. Does he have a chance or is he going to pull a Brownback?

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  14. I'd like to see what kind of numbers Barack Obama gets. Yes, in the Republican primary. It would be an interesting benchmark of likely crossover voters - and if he gets more than a few percent, it would be particularly amusing to see which Republican potential candidates can't even beat President Obama in their own party's primary.

    For a question that isn't being asked, how about a perceptions question? "Do you believe that illegal immigration is rising, falling, or staying about the same? How about crime related to illegal immigration?" Statistics show that both of those figures have been declining, but it would be interesting to see what people believe is the case (I would bet dollars to donuts that Republicans would erroneously believe that it was getting worse, and by large margins).

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  15. I second the Obama request

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  16. Thune's low name i.d. is actually very instructive. If someone with low name i.d. does better than a well-known GOPer, it'll tell us a lot about Obama and a lot about the current GOP candidates.

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  17. The only GOP candidates I can think of who might have a large enough national name recognition are Rudy Giuliani and John McCain. The latter would be an interesting rerun of the 2008 election.

    Tim Pawlenty has been working very hard at trying to gain some traction and doesn't seem to be succeeding. You might poll him.

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  18. I'd love to see Bloomberg included, both as the Republican Nominee and possibly as an independent.

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  19. You should ask a question about the federal court intervention in the DOMA case. It would also be interesting to see if people think same sex marriages from other states should be recognized in their state (as opposed to the generic same-sex marriage question that is usually asked).

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  20. Try former Sen. George Allen. I keep hearing that he plans a political comeback.

    Another thing you could poll is people's opinions on the recent Wall Street reform bill.

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  21. Bobby Jindal or John Thune.

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  22. As Mitt Romney is the leader, but Newt Gingrich seems to have some potential to catch him in the Republican primaries, putting Newt into the mix seems advisble.

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  23. Ask about cap and trade. I don't think that many people know what that is, and are they really that opposed to it?

    How about Citizens United and corporation spending? Democrats think its such a big issue. Do voters think it is free speech thing or corporations shouldn't get the same rights as individuals?

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  24. Here's a creative question: Have you ever lied to a pollster?

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  25. Perhaps instead of asking about an individual Republican candidate with close to zero name recognition, you could poll Obama against a generic Republican candidate. A lot of the other 2012 polling has shown generic Republican polling much better against Obama than actual Republican candidates. I wonder if your polling would show the same thing. It might be more interesting than another poll showing a low name-rec. Republican down in the 30s against Obama.

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  26. Can you test Mike Naso as the fifth Republican candidate?

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  27. "Another thing you could poll is people's opinions on the recent Wall Street reform bill."

    We already did a few months ago.

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  28. George Pataki.

    He didn't run for the Senate so he could run for President. I doubt he has that much ID, but he'll be a player.

    Or Mitch Daniels

    His ID seems to be rising and people like him. Socially less known, fiscally conservative.

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  29. Rick Perry or Richard Lugar

    For a national question, ask what a fair tax rate should be on someone making $10 million a year.

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  30. You could poll the Obama/Biden ticket vs. the Republicans and the Obama/Clinton ticket vs. the Republicans to see if there´s much difference between them.

    Joe Biden´s approvals are as low as Obama's, but Clinton's are close to or above 60%.

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  31. marijuana legalization and Chris Christie vs. Obama.

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  32. Dustin Ingalls:
    "We already did a few months ago."

    I meant poll it again, now that it's passed. Are people happy about it, or not?

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  33. Tom
    This is a classic exercise in " deflection." To add folks in a poll who have steadfastly said , over and over again, that they do not intend to run, into a poll of folks who probably do intend to run, serves the singular purpose of supporting a conclusion that there is no " clear leader "
    I you had 1 candidate, there would be a clear leader. If you have 6 or 7 or eight, many of whom are obviously NOT CANDIDATES, you will increasingly NOT have a clear leader....which serves somebody's objectives. Not sure who.

    CraigS

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  34. I don't know if it's too late for this, but hopefully you'll read it and ask it next time. It's a question no one is polling and it's one that will produce surprising results. Ask Republicans:

    Do you want to see John Boehner as the Speaker of the House in the next congress?
    Yes
    No

    That question might get Boehner "yes" votes because people might view as Boehner vs. Pelosi. Ask this instead or in addition:

    Who would you like to see as Speaker of the House in the next congress?
    John Boehner
    Eric Cantor
    Paul Ryan
    Michele Bachmann
    Some other Republican

    Ask this question and you'll be talked about everywhere from redstate to Politico for at least a week.

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