The Newsweek/Daily Beast poll also surveyed the 2012 race. The Republican presidential primary is effectively tied between Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee—with Sarah Palin trailing them both by substantial margins in the Republican presidential trial heat.
The prospective addition of Donald Trump to the race did produce some impact, and his support was in the high single digits.
Individual head-to-head ballot tests for president show President Obama with a double-digit lead over Sarah Palin (51-40), a narrow lead over Mitt Romney (49-47) and Donald Trump (43-41), and a tie with Mike Huckabee (46-46).
Moreover, the particularly high percentage of undecided voters in the race with Trump underscores the substantial degree of uncertainty his prospective candidacy provokes.
Sigh. Score one for Trump's indefatigable PR team; from their perspective, simply getting The Donald listed as a "serious" option in presidential polling is a win. Moving on to an actual meaningful finding in the Newsweek survey, voters are still overwhelmingly opposed to Obamacare, but are split on the question of repeal:
Only 37 percent support the health-care reform law, versus 56 percent who oppose. But in terms of repealing it, the verdict is split.
Interestingly, Rasmussen's repeal numbers closely mirror Newsweek's Obamacare approval/disapproval split:
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely Voters shows that 56% favor repeal of the health care law, including 43% who Strongly Favor repeal. Forty percent (40%) oppose repeal of the law, including 27% who are Strongly Opposed.