Poll: Most GOP voters think long primary hurts nominee

By: Lucy Madison
Topics: Polling

(Credit: CBS)

As the Republican presidential field heads into what increasingly looks like a lengthy battle to the GOP nomination, a new CBS News/New York Times poll shows that most Republican voters see a long primary process as potentially damaging to the party's eventual nominee.

According to the poll, conducted by telephone from February 8-13, 57 percent of Republican voters nationwide say a drawn-out nomination battle - and the associated attacks on a candidate - would hurt the nominee's chances in 2012.

Thirty-five percent say a long nomination contest would make the Republican candidate more tested and prepared for the general election; subsequently, they say, a long nominating contest would help the nominee.

Throughout the nomination process, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney -- the front-runner for much of the campaign -- has been the subject of near-constant assault from his Republican rivals, who have attacked his record and cast him as a flip-flopper.

A handful of recent polls, including tonight's CBS News/New York Times poll, suggest that the nomination fight has already taken a toll on Romney, whose support among independents has dropped considerably in the last several weeks.

According to the poll, self-identified independents have recently shifted away from Romney toward President Obama.

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Complete poll results

A month ago, independents were more inclined to vote for Romney or Ron Paul than for the president; now they favor Mr. Obama against all four of the major Republican challengers.

The poll shows also shows Mr. Obama holding for the first time a significant lead over each of his potential Republican opponents -- including Romney -- in the general election.

The new survey shows the president leading Romney by six points, 48 percent to 42 percent, among registered voters. Last month, the two men were tied at 45 percent each. Mr. Obama led the recently-surging Rick Santorum by eight points in the poll, which showed Santorum faring better than Romney among independents.

Lucy Madison
Lucy Madison is a political reporter for CBSNews.com.
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by magnumdr February 26, 2012 9:02 AM EST

Nobody is going to voye for any Republican after they screwed up our Country and got us so far in debt that many of the people here lost their homes. You people gave our jobs away to other Countries and nobody owes you anything but an out from Government offices!

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by stevehamilton858 February 29, 2012 2:37 AM EST: I think you are pretty close to what's going to happen. However, right wing extremists (wingnuts) will probably vote for them, if they vote at all. However, the GOP candidates are killing each other and themselves by their outrageous comments during this drawn out campaign. Santorum will never get much support beyond the evangelicals (thank God). No married woman in America will vote for Newt Gingrich. The evangelicals may kill Romney because of his religion. and, perhaps, most importantly, the support by the Koch brothers for Scott Walker as a third party candidate will cut into the total GOP vote substantially. And the economy is continuing its slow but steady improvement. I don't see how any of the remaining GOP candidates will get any support from moderate or centrist voters. I believe that president Obama will win by a landslide in November that will eclipse Barry Goldwater's loss in 1964. Abe Lincoln said it first and best, "you can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time". Today's Republican candidates and elected officials are living on borrowed time. FoxNews reports that almost 90% of voters disapprove of the job that Congress is doing. Why? Because they can't get anything acccomplished. And why is that? Because there are too many extremists in the Republican ranks; and our Constitution is drafted so that making laws requires negotiation, but extremists don't understand that negotiation requires that both parties give something up, and extremists find that anathema. If the GOP doesn't re-form its constituency in 2012, they are on the path to irrelevancy. Dwight Eisenhower was probably the best, most effective Republican president in the 20th century. If he were alive today, the RNC would not back him as a candidate; in fact, they probably wouldn't back Ronald Reagan today, because he had been president of the Actor's union, and he made the major studios back down and accede to his demands.

by venusvegasvada February 19, 2012 4:52 PM EST

If they actually had any candidates that were really up to being our President they wouldn't have to make this statement.

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by stevehamilton858 February 29, 2012 2:45 AM EST: You're right. The RNC backed candidates for the 2012 election are the weakest group I've seen in 50 years of voting. Thank God, Trump finally left in a huff.

I am in total agreement with John McCain's mother who recently asked, "what have they done to my party". And the short answer is "they've screwed it up by giving control to the wingnuts". The Tea Party and Grover Norquist have done more harm to America than Osama bin Laden. And the extremist evangelicals aren't far behind.

by jimbom121 February 17, 2012 2:49 PM EST

With a longer primary season, the candidates have an opportunity to show their solutions to the issues such as the economy, healthcare and the deficit.

But no. All we hear about is how many qives Gingrich had and how he was hated in the House, or how Romney was a corporate raider, or Cain's 9-9-9 plan that even he could not explain, or how each would repeal the healthcare law, but replace it with....well they don't have an answer.

At least in 2008, Obama and Clinton pretty much talked about issues, as did McCain.

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by stevehamilton858 February 26, 2012 2:07 AM EST: I agree, plus all of these candidates have forgotten Reagan's 11th commandment, and they are doing a better job of tearing each other up than the Democrats could. And you're right in that I haven't heard a comment of substance about any of the major problems facing America today. They all seem to be following Herbert Hoover's 1936 playbook, and look at how well that turned out for the GOP. I think the RNC gave us an incredibly weak list to choose from, and I believe that, together with Scott Walker backed by the Koch brothers as a third party conservative candidate, will cost the GOP the presidential election and the probable loss of the House, as well.

by gep1955 February 15, 2012 7:35 PM EST

I wish CBS would takes their polls outside of Manhattan. This is BS. They just want the GOP to go away so they can fill pages with more drivel about Obama. Mainstream press is no longer the propagand arm of the whitehouse. They're both arms, both legs, most of the torso and a kidney.

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by userjohna February 16, 2012 10:20 AM EST: You must live in Canada with no tv. If the GOP fielded a candidate with a real idea it would be headline news.
May the bashing continue.


by stevehamilton858 February 26, 2012 2:12 AM EST: Apparently, you haven't read much history about the positions taken by the press in this country, since Washington was elected. The press (now called media) has never been unbiased. FoxNews is way over on the right. CBS seems to me to be reasonably balanced, as does the NY Times, which I read daily on my Kindle, since I live in Northern California. I think every media organization has some bias and I'm OK with that. All of us just have to apply a reason filter to what we read, see and hear.

by dzaffina February 15, 2012 6:20 PM EST

Most GOP voters think long primary hurts nominee..... well yea, they know the more you find out about these clowns, the more people are not going to vote for them.

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by stevehamilton858 February 29, 2012 3:04 AM EST: That's refreshing. The GOP voters are finally showing some common sense, instead of getting swept up in the wingnut rhetoric that gets repeated so much. And these does are killing each other, not proposing any possible solutions to helping the improving, but still weak economy, or about programs to increase either hiring or repatriating jobs. We're hearing about contraception and the fact that the Constitution almost makes Santorum puke. I say, give the guy some Tums and send him to a country where religion and government are intertwined, like Saudi Arabia.

by AngryBob86 February 15, 2012 1:26 PM EST

What's hurting the nominee is all the negative campaigning, particularly by the candidates' "independent" PACs. Thanks to Newt and Rick we now know that Romney was a corporate raider, draft dodger, wants to destroy medicare and is a pro-abortion moderate. Thanks to Mitt, we now know that Newt, is "no Ronald Reagan". We also know that Rick Santorum is an off the wall religious lunatic who wants to use the Presidency to implement a radical Catholic agenda. In short, thanks to unlimited PAC money from corporations and wealthy contributors we now know that none of the Republican hopefuls is fit to fill the chair in the Oval Office.

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by jimbom121 February 17, 2012 2:43 PM EST: Perhaps if they had any ideas about the actual issues, these fringe things would not come up.


by stevehamilton858 February 29, 2012 3:07 AM EST: Well, you're right. One of the things I've learned over the past few years is that good can come out of bad.

by fiberglass3 February 15, 2012 7:26 AM EST

Did you watch the Republican debate the other night? Me neither!

There wasn't one of these walk up candidates that I would even consider voting for.

It appears that "9-9-9" and "Oops" was all that they really had to offer.

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by reality_sanity February 15, 2012 2:31 PM EST: Don, how many debades do Republican candidates require to clearly explain their stance on the issues to the voters? So much for the "tradition" of Reagan, the great communicator.


by ProgressNow February 15, 2012 12:36 AM EST: The longer you get to know a repub, the less you like him/her. Case in point: Rick Perry; Reply to this comment


by superdarklayers February 14, 2012 11:53 PM EST: Hey anybody at CBS, is there any possibility you could dig into blocs? Pew Research found that college graduates preferred Romney and those who didn't have a degree went for Santorum. Likewise, a CNN poll found white collar families were somewhat more likely to support Romney and Santorum enjoyed more support from blue collars.; Reply to this comment


by nearl451 February 14, 2012 9:12 PM EST: It is not the length of the primary, no matter whatthe poll says.

Here are causes for a poor choice:

(1) No electable Candidates run.
(2) superPac Money to bombard rivals before there is any clear "people voice"
(3) Establishemnt picking before the process begins (in this case 4 years before-hand); Reply to this comment