AllPolitics - News

Poll: No To Buchanan Bid

WASHINGTON (AllPolitics, March 18) -- Nearly three-quarters of Americans do not want insurgent Republican Pat Buchanan to mount an independent run for the White House this fall.

A new CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll released today found that 73 percent of people interviewed do not think Buchanan should run, compared to only 20 percent who thought he should.

Nearly as many Republicans think it's time for Buchanan to quit the race for the GOP nomination. A full 70 percent say he should, compared to 26 percent who disagree.

The findings were based on interviews with 1,088 adults, interviwed between Friday and Sunday. The margin of sampling error for the question of an independent run by Buchanan was +/- 3 percentage points.

Only registered Republicans were asked about whether Buchanan should bow out of the race for the nomination and the margin of error was +/- 5 percentage points.

[Clinton v. Dole Poll]

Other significant findings in the poll:

  • President Bill Clinton continues to maintain a 12-point lead over Sen. Robert Dole if the general election were held today, with 54 percent favoring the president and 42 percent Dole.

    [Clinton/Gore v. Dole/Powell Poll]

    The race becomes a 49 percent-48 percent statistical dead heat if retired Gen. Colin Powell were to join the Republican ticket. Powell, however, has said he has no plans to run for political office and expressed some irritation at a new groundswell of speculation that he might reconsider.


  • If Texas billionaire Ross Perot ran as an independent candidate, 16 percent of voter would support him, with 46 percent picking Clinton and 36 percent picking Dole.

    It marks the first time in the survey that Perot would draw more voters from Clinton than from Dole. Last August, Perot pulled twice as many of his voters from Dole as from Clinton.

  • If Pat Buchanan bolts the GOP, he would win 12 percent of the vote if the election were held today, with Clinton beating Dole by 15 points. Most of Buchanan's voters would choose Dole in a two-way race.

    Buchanan has vowed to press on with his campaign, despite Dole's 10-1 lead in delegates. Buchanan has hinted of dire consequences if his supporters are shunted aside at the GOP convention in August in San Diego.

    		•

    AllPolitics home page

    [http://Pathfinder.com]

    Copyright © 1997 AllPolitics All Rights Reserved
    Terms under which this information is provided to you

    		 [http://CNN.com]