Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Newsmax Poll: O'Reilly, Beck Could Rival Obama in Head-to-Head Presidential Race

By Jim Meyers
In a clear sign of voters’ disdain for President Barack Obama’s policies, several media personalities with no political experience, including Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, would be within striking distance of defeating Obama in a head-to-head race, according to a new Newsmax/SurveyUSA poll.

Newsmax, O'Reilly, Obama, Beck,Newsmax conducted the survey to find out how several well-known political and "dark-horse" celebrity figures, ranging from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to businessmen Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to O’Reilly and Beck, would fare if they ran against Obama for the White House.

The survey of 1,000 registered voters was conducted Nov. 3-4, after Republicans won the House and gained six seats in the Senate in the midterm elections — results widely interpreted as a rejection of Obama and raising questions about his chances for re-election in 2012.

In the Newsmax poll, respondents were asked: “If there were an election for president of the United States today, and the only two names on the ballot were Bill O’Reilly and Barack Obama, whom would you vote for?” They also were asked that question with other leading media figures in place of O’Reilly.

Glenn Beck, O'Reilly, Obama, President, NewsmaxOverall, O’Reilly got 46 percent of the vote and his fellow Fox News Channel host Beck received 45 percent.

Those percentages are remarkable considering that a prominent political figure, Sarah Palin, got 48 percent of the vote in the Newsmax poll.

O’Reilly even outpolled Obama among men with 52 percent of the vote, among Republicans (79 percent), and conservatives (82 percent).Beck tied Obama among men at 50 percent, and won among Republicans (78 percent) and conservatives (80 percent).

Both Beck and O’Reilly received 49 percent of the vote among white respondents.

Radio talk show host and former CNN anchor Lou Dobbs got 44 percent of the vote in the hypothetical head-to-head race against Obama, and top-ranked radio host Rush Limbaugh got 42 percent.

Other media personalities in the poll were “Tonight Show” host Jay Leno, who got 40 percent of the vote, Comedy Central host Jon Stewart (39 percent), and Oprah Winfrey (37 percent).

But all of the media figures in the poll, including Winfrey, defeated Obama among Republicans and conservatives.

SurveyUSA is an independent research company that conducts public opinion polls for media and academic institutions, and conducts private market research for commercial clients and nonprofit organizations.

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