None Of The Above: Why Trump Polls Well In The GOP Primary | Talking Points Memo

Are Republican voters seriously considering hiring Donald Trump to run for the White House?

Trump has the blogosphere atwitter over the past few weeks with his sudden sprint to the front of surveys of the 2012 Republican presidential primary race, matching — or in some cases even beating — big-name GOPers like Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney. A CNN poll released this week showed Trump tied for first place with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee. But a closer look at the candidates reveals that Trump’s high support may not be so much a sign of his strength, but of a sign of the overall field’s weakness.Aside from a handful of candidates, the prospective GOP candidates are virtually unknown to voters. In a March AP/GfK poll, over half of all adults had no opinion about five potential candidates: Haley Barbour, Jon Huntsman, Mitch Daniels, Tim Pawlenty, and Rick Santorum. Nearly seven in ten didn’t know Huntsman well enough to form an opinion of him.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=112533