Trump Trumps the GOP Field

The Donald







The New York Times reported this morning on the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll that finds increasing pessimism among Americans over the economic outlook of the country.  President Obama does not do well in the new poll, with the public's disapproval of his handling of the economy at an all-time high of 57 percent.

All of this should be good news to the Republican party, as so much of its energy on both the national and state level seems to be directed at stymieing the nascent recovery of the economy for political gain.  But the Republican party has its own problem:  identifying a viable candidate to run against the Prez. 

The Pew Research Center pointed out in its weekly News Interest Index survey that half of Americans can't name a single potential Republican presidential candidate for 2012, and of those respondents that could, Donald Trump is by far the best known candidate. 

The Pew survey data were collected April 14 to 17, from a nationally representative sample of 1,015 adults.

Money Quotes:

Donald Trump has drawn a lot of attention in a slow-starting race for the GOP nomination. Roughly a quarter of all Americans (26%) name Trump as the possible Republican presidential candidate they have heard most about lately, far more than volunteer any other candidate. Among Republicans, 39% name Trump as most visible – more than all the other GOP potential candidates combined.

To be sure, Trump is standing out in a contest that has yet to draw much public interest or media coverage. In fact, about half of all Americans (53%) could not name anyone when asked which GOP candidate they have been hearing the most about

 

Graph from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. 

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