Gingrich, Paul In; Huckabee to Make Announcement

Texas Rep. Ron Paul has officially jumped into the race for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. This is his third try. As a result of his previous exposure, Paul has pretty good name identification. Seventy-five percent of Republicans recognize Paul. (See full details at our new Election 2012 site.) Paul is in a third tier of current or possible GOP candidates in this regard; Donald Trump and Sarah Palin are best known, followed by Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, and Mike Huckabee. And then Paul.

Dr. Paul -- he and his son, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, are both medical doctors -- is still not creating an undue level of excitement among Republicans. His Positive Intensity Score is 14, based on 16% of those Republicans who recognize him who give him a strongly favorable rating, and 2% who recognize him whose opinion is strongly unfavorable. That puts Paul at about an average point in the spectrum of candidates.

Meanwhile, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich also officially announced his candidacy this week. Dr. Gingrich (he has a Ph.D. in History from Tulane), as noted, has high name identification, but his Positive Intensity Score is worse than Paul's among Republicans, at 11. I've dissected Gingrich's position and challenges here.

Now, we have former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee next up on the firing line. Huckabee says he will make a "very important" announcement this weekend.

No one seems to know if the announcement will be that he, like Gingrich and Paul, is officially a candidate for his party's nomination. Or if he, like Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, will be making it official that he is not running.

Huckabee, born to modest circumstances in Hope, Arkansas, now has a lucrative career as a broadcaster and author. When one goes to Huckabee's website, in fact, here is what is at the top of his bio:

Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is the host of the number one rated weekend hit "HUCKABEE" on the Fox News Channel, and is heard three times daily across the nation on the "Huckabee Report" syndicated on almost 600 stations by the Citadel Media Network, where it has been the fastest growing new program on the Citadel Media Network in recent years.


He is the author of 9 books, the most recent being "A Simple Government," which is currently on the New York Times Bestseller list. This is his fourth book on the New York Times Bestseller List joining "Do the Right Thing," "A Simple Christmas" and "Can't Wait Till Christmas."


Politics aren't mentioned until the third paragraph. This is significant since Huckabee is building a large and expensive house on the Florida panhandle. For him to enter the presidential race, his paid media career would in large part come to a screeching halt, along with the income stream that comes with it. All of this no doubt makes his decision a tough one. On the other hand, Huckabee is on the top of our Gallup Positive Intensity Score rankings and has been since we began them. Republicans who know him appear to like him. He is on this measure the front-runner. The enticement of another run must be appealing.

What about Donald Trump? In case you missed it, he scores the worst on Gallup's Positive Intensity Score of any of 13 current or potential GOP candidates we are measuring. His Positive Intensity Score is zero. As many Republicans say they have strongly unfavorable opinions of Trump as strongly favorable opinions.

Overall, Trump is viewed unfavorably by 41% of Republicans who know him. That is a significantly higher unfavorable rating than any other Republican we tested. The next highest is 25% for Newt Gingrich.