Free Republic

Herman Cain's had a bad couple of news days that may or may not ultimately throttle his candidacy, but in our polling over the weekend he was continuing to fly high. In North Carolina, which a month ago was the first state we found him leading in, he'd built on his support over the last four weeks. And in Maine he held a small advantage over Mitt Romney, showing the ability to challenge Romney even on his home New England turf. In North Carolina Cain led with 30% to 22% for Newt Gingrich, 19% for Mitt Romney, 10% for Rick...

Businessman Herman Cain has risen to the top of a national poll of Republican primary voters, upending the GOP field yet again this cycle. Cain has the support of 30 percent of Republicans in the Public Policy Polling survey, trailed by Mitt Romney at 22 percent, Newt Gingrich at 15 percent, and Rick Perry at 14 percent. Cain is also the second choice of 24 percent of those polled — the highest of any candidate. In a two-person race, Romney would lead Perry 48-38, Cain would lead Romney 48-36, and Cain would destroy Perry 55-27. The poll was conducted before...

Rick Perry's led the Republican field in every Southern state that we've polled since he entered the Presidential race...until now. Mitt Romney continues to lead the way in Florida with 30% to 24% for Perry, 10% for Gingrich, 8% for Ron Paul, 7% for Herman Cain, 6% for Michele Bachmann, 3% for Jon Huntsman, 2% for Rick Santorum, and 1% for Gary Johnson.Perry had a poor debate performance in Florida Thursday night and our results suggest that the negative coverage he received from that did hurt him some in the state. We started this poll on Thursday night before the...

US Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry regularly touts his successes during his three terms as Texas Governor, but in Texas, there's not too much satisfaction with the work he has done, according to a new poll. The poll by Public Policy Polling showed that only 45 percent of the state's voters approve of Perry's job performance, while 48 percent say they don't approve, Politico reports. It, however, said that a majority of Texans supported Perry over US President Barack Obama. Perry leads Obama with 51 percent support to the President's 44 percent. The survey of 569 Texas voters was taken...

Mitt Romney has the lead in PPP's first Iowa poll since Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump exited the race, but with six different candidates polling in double digits it's clear this thing is wide open. Romney polls at 21%. Sarah Palin and Herman Cain are tied for second at 15%. Newt Gingrich is 4th with 12%, Michele Bachmann 5th with 11%, Tim Pawlenty 6th with 10%, Ron Paul 7th with 8%, and Jon Huntsman 8th with 0% (only one respondent to the poll picked him.) 8% said they supported someone else or were undecided. Cain and Palin have been the...

Herman Cain’s scrappy campaign for the GOP presidential nomination is making an impression. From Public Policy Polling of North Carolina: Mitt Romney has the lead in PPP’s first Iowa poll since Mike Huckabee and Donald Trump exited the race, but with six different candidates polling in double digits it’s clear this thing is wide open. Romney polls at 21%. Sarah Palin and Herman Cain are tied for second at 15%. Newt Gingrich is 4th with 12%, Michele Bachmann 5th with 11%, Tim Pawlenty 6th with 10%, Ron Paul 7th with 8%, and Jon Huntsman 8th with 0% (only one respondent...

President Barack Obama's approval rating with Ohio voters is below 50 percent but the Democratic president still appears to be in decent shape to carry the state in 2012 against potential GOP candidates, according to a Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday. The survey from the Democratic polling company, based in Raleigh, N.C., found that 46 percent of Ohio voters approved the presidents performance while 49 percent disapproved. However, in matchups against potential GOP, Obama prevailed. The closest race was with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, with Obama leading 46-42 percent...

In 2008, Barack Obama defeated John McCain in Nevada by a whopping 12%, 55%-43%. By analyzing a recent PPP release, we note that Palin is within 4% points, or even tied depending on how deep your analysis goes. First, the PPP results show that Obama leads Palin by 50%-39% in the state, which isn’t even bad by any measure. But, like always, that poll is incredibly skewed towards Democrats as they make up a whopping 45% of those polled, to just 35% Republicans and 20% Independents. (In 2010, the Democrats only accounted for 35% of the vote and in Democrat-heavy...

A week ago, I called out Public Policy Polling as a political spin machine instead of credible pollster: Still, there are a number of things to consider before taking PPP at their word. After 2010 elections, which PPP did a good job polling, many have noticed a dramatic pull toward narrative building as opposed to informational reporting. Especially their Charlie Sheen/Sarah Palin gimmick (Nate Silver’s words, not mine). While PPP is associated with Daily Kos, they’re accuracy in 2010 elections won over my doubts. However, in a very new development, they are also teaming up with the SEIU and given...

OMG, I’m dying here. We’ve found a lot of brutal poll numbers for Sarah Palin so far in 2011: down in South Dakota, down in South Carolina, down in Arizona, only up by 1 point in Texas, only up by 1 point in Nebraska to name a few. But this has to be the worst- independent voters say they would support Charlie Sheen over Palin for President by a 41/36 margin. Seriously. Despite her deficit with independents Palin does lead Sheen 49-29 overall. We also tested Barack Obama against Sheen and the President leads 57-24. Sheen is one of the...

It's a well known fact that Sarah Palin is the most unpopular major political figure in the country...one thing that may be less well known is that one of the states where voters have the dimmest view of her is her own home state of Alaska. We've polled Palin's favorability in ten states over the last couple months. In Alaska just 33% of voters have a favorable opinion of her to 58% with a negative one. The only place where fewer voters see her positively than her own home state is dark blue Massachusetts. Democrats hate Palin in Alaska...

A PPP poll shows that Michele Bachmann is easily the first choice of Minnesota Republicans to run for the Senate in 2012. 36 percent say they prefer her as the nominee, compared to 20 percent for Tim Pawlenty and 14 percent for Norm Coleman. I have no idea whether any of these three is interested in running for the Senate in 2012. But I think this poll adds credence to some of my speculation about what to expect in the 2012 Republican presidential primaries. I've been suggesting that, if she runs, Sarah Palin might be able to attract 30 to...

It's well documented that Sarah Palin has problems with Democrats and independents, but the first seven states where we've looked at the 2012 Presidential election make it clear that she has a Republican problem as well. It's not that Republicans don't like her- on our last national poll 68% rated her favorably, making her easily the most popular prospective 2012 candidate with Mike Huckabee at 63%, Newt Gingrich at 57%, and Mitt Romney at 56%. It's that a lot of the Republicans who don't like her- in contrast to the Republicans who don't like Huckabee, Gingrich, or Romney- aren't willing...

Barack Obama's best chance to win Missouri may have passed...unless the Republicans nominate Sarah Palin or Newt Gingrich. After losing the state by the smallest of margins in 2008 Obama is now unpopular in the state, with 52% of voters disapproving of him to only 43% who approve. He trails Mike Huckabee by 7 points (49-42) and Mitt Romney by 6 points (47-41) in hypothetical match ups. But Palin and Gingrich are even more unpopular in the state than he is and as a result he leads Palin by a 46-43 margin and trails Gingrich only 45-44. Huckabee is...

There were a ton of competitive Senate races in 2010 and the playing field could be even wider in 2012. Since the beginning of August PPP has polled on the approval ratings of 18 Senators who are up for reelection next time around. 9 of the 18 have an approval spread somewhere that's between +10 and -10, indicating the kind of ambiguous feelings toward an incumbent that can lead to a competitive race. The three least popular and conceivably most vulnerable Senators up next time that we've polled on are Joe Lieberman, Claire McCaskill, and Debbie Stabenow.

Public Policy Polling, a Democratic firm, shows West Virginia governor and Democratic Senate candidate Joe Manchin leading Republican John Raese by 3 points (48% to 45%), just a couple weeks after trailing Raese by a few points. It will be interesting to see if other pollsters pick up the same movement. Last week, Rasmussen showed Raese leading Manchin 50% to 44%. Nevada race remains tight. PPP shows Harry Reid leading Sharron Angle by 2 points in Nevada (47% to 45%). But Fox News finds Angle with 2 point lead (49% to 47%). From Fox's other polls out today (GOP candidates...

Raleigh, N.C. – If the election were held today, Robert Byrd’s U.S. Senate seat from West Virginia would be held by a Republican and someone other than Byrd for the first time in 52 years. Though Governor Joe Manchin is still very popular, with a stellar 59-32 approval rating, second among those PPP has measured this year to Louisiana’s Bobby Jindal, he is trailing Republican opponent John Raese, 43-46, among likely voters.

Republicans more than likely cost themselves a Senate seat last night. Chris Coons begins the general election in Delaware with a 50-34 lead over Christine O'Donnell. Mike Castle would have led Coons by a 45-35 margin. While O'Donnell may have ingratiated herself to Delaware's small group of registered Republicans over the last month she's turned off everyone else. An August Daily Kos/PPP poll in Delaware found her favorability rating at 23/33. It's now 29/50. If Castle had won he would have received more Democratic support than any other Republican Senate candidate in the country. Now our polling suggests with O'Donnell's...

One billion muslims can't be wrong: Pak Minister wants Obama to be ''leader of all Muslims'' MSN Islamabad, Sep 2 (PTI) A Pakistani minister wants US President Barack Obama to offer Eid prayers at Ground Zero in New York and become the "Amir-ul-Momineen" or Caliph of Muslims. Minister of State for Industries Ayatullah Durrani, who belongs to the ruling Pakistan People''s Party, said the upcoming Eid-ul-Fitr festival, expected to be observed on September 11, would be a "golden opportunity" for Obama to offer Eid prayers and declare himself the leader of all Muslims. "In this way, all the problems of...

Who was it, remind me, who was ahead of the curve on this? Who was it who called on her to gently appeal to the legalization crowd weeks before she ended up dropping that mini-bombshell on Napolitano’s show about marijuana laws being overenforced?C’mon. I have, like, three good ideas a year. Give a man some props. Among Republicans who say they’ve smoked Marijuana:Palin 25 Gingrich 22 Huckabee 17 Romney 17 Paul 8Among Republicans who say they have not smoked Marijuana:Huckabee 24 Romney 23 Gingrich 21 Palin 21 Paul 3 The sample size was only, er, 83 people, but even so,...