Republican Santorum wins South Carolina straw poll

Republican Rick Santorum got praise for presentation up and won a 2012 presidential straw poll of festivity activists in the vital early voting position of South Carolina, organizers said on Saturday.

Santorum, a traditional from Pennsylvania, was the only presidential applicant to be present at the South Carolina party's yearly ceremonial dinner on Friday night. He won 150 out of 408 votes cast in the presidential first choice poll of dinner attendees.

That trounced second-place finisher Mitt Romney, the previous Massachusetts governor, who established 61 votes. In third place was previous pizza manager Herman Cain with 44 votes.

Three others complete with more than 20 votes -- real estate tycoon Donald Trump with 29, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who has frequently said he will not sprint, with 22 and U.S. delegate Michelle Bachmann with 22.

Many South Carolina Republicans were upset that the party's maximum profile candidates skipped the first 2012 Republican presidential argue they sponsored on Thursday. It was attended by five minor known candidates.

Those five -- Santorum, Cain, U.S. Representative Ron Paul, previous Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and previous New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson -- were invited to converse at the ceremonial dinner, but only Santorum showed up.

"To those who didn't arrive, you get a go by this time but you certain as hell improved come next time," Republican U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said at the dinner.

Votes in the poll were cast for a total of 16 different potential candidates in a slow-starting and unsettled Republican nominating race that has not produced a clear front-runner.

The other candidates to register in double-digits in the poll were former U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich and previous Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 16 and Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels with 15.

Others who tallied single-digit totals built-in Paul with 8, Pawlenty with 7, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin with 6 and former U.S. ambassador to China Jon Huntsmann with 4

The majority voters speak "no" to Palin or Trump in 2012

Almost 60 percent of Americans would never support a Republican presidential bid by previous Alaska Governor Sarah Palin or real estate mogul and reality TV idol Donald Trump, according to a new poll on Wednesday.

Trump, who has been trying the waters for a possible 2012 run for the Republican presidential recommendation, has said he would announce impressive before June -- after his authenticity TV show, "Celebrity Apprentice," ends its season on May 22.

Palin was the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate and is observance her supporters guessing on whether she will run.

The Quinnipiac University poll of 1,408 electorate found that about half would think or be excited about backing former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney or former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee in the November 2012 election.

"Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee are in the most excellent shape. Sarah Palin and Donald Trump experience from the reality that, as our mothers told us, 'You never get a second chance to create a first feeling,'" said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling organization.

Among the 613 Republican and independent Republican-leaning voters, the poll showed Romney as preferred to win the Republican presidential nomination with 18 percent, followed by Huckabee and Palin with 15 percent and Trump with 12 percent.

Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels and former House of government Speaker Newt Gingrich each have 5 percent, while former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and Minnesota ambassador Michele Bachmann and both on 4 percent.

The margin of mistake for that subset was plus or minus 4 percentage points.

The telephone poll, conducted between April 16 and May 1, was released on the eve of a debate in South Carolina among a handful of potential Republican candidates, none of them high-profile names.

The mistake margin for the larger group was 2.6 points.
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