With Huckabee Out, No Clear GOP Front-Runner

With Mike Huckabee out of the race for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination, three well-known politicians, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Newt Gingrich, emerge as leaders in Republicans' preferences. Republicans, however, have less intensely positive feelings about these three than they did about Huckabee. Two less well-known potential candidates, Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain, generate high levels of enthusiasm among Republicans who recognize them. ... Republicans' nomination preferences at this point largely appear to reflect name identification. ... Romney and Palin are essentially tied; Gingrich does slightly less well even though he and Romney have nearly identical name identification. Ron Paul and Bachmann are the only other potential candidates with name recognition above 50%....