Frank Newport
Gallup
August 22, 2011

COMMENT: This poll yet again demonstrates that Ron Paul is a competitive candidate, despite what the mainstream media would have us believe. Even without the corporate media-promotion and general name recognition, Ron Paul is matched against President Obama (within the margin of error) and only a few points behind the GOP darlings like Perry & Romney. The ‘Ron Paul can’t win hoax’ is yet again dispelled by statistical numbers.

PRINCETON, NJ — President Barack Obama is closely matched against each of four possible Republican opponents when registered voters are asked whom they would support if the 2012 presidential election were held today. Mitt Romney leads Obama by two percentage points, 48% to 46%, Rick Perry and Obama are tied at 47%, and Obama edges out Ron Paul and Michele Bachmann by two and four points, respectively.

These prospective election ballots — measured Aug. 17-18, well over a year before the Nov. 6, 2012, election — indicate that the race for president at this point is generally competitive, with voters fairly evenly divided in their preference for giving Obama a second term or electing a Republican candidate. Even though the four Republican candidates tested have varying degrees of name recognition, they all fare roughly the same.

Gallup’s generic presidential ballot — measured six times this year — shows a close race between Obama and a generic “Republican presidential can...,” although there have been survey-to-survey variations on this measure, with the Republican candidate leading in June and July.

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