President Obama beats all Republican challengers tested against him in a series of hypothetical 2012 match-ups, a new poll found Wednesday.

Obama enjoys leads over former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) and Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) by varying margins, according to an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released Wednesday evening.

The president maintains a small lead within the margin of error over a generic GOP opponent. Forty-two percent of U.S. adults said that they would probably vote to reelect Obama in 2012, while 39 percent said they'd prefer a Republican. Six percent were unsure, while 10 percent said it depended on the challenger to Obama.

But Obama performs even better against Romney, Palin and Thune — three Republicans thought to be interested in challenging Obama for control of the White House in two years.

Forty-seven percent would vote for Obama if Romney were the nominee, while 40 percent would vote for the former Massachusetts governor, the poll found.

Obama beats Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee, 55 percent to 33.

The president also leads Thune, 47 percent to 27, though a much larger number of respondents to that hypothetical (17 percent) said they were not sure, reflecting that Thune is relatively unknown as a national Republican at this point.

A number of would-be GOP challengers to Obama went untested in the poll. The survey did not evaluate how former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind.) or Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) would fare against Obama.

http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/133929-poll-obama-bests-potential-gop-challengers-in-2012

These must be the same people who pretended to hold court and charge Bush with war crimes or whatever it was.

A poll of 1000 voters that doesn't state how they were chosen means little to me.

It say's he has a small lead(by a liberal polling company). He is toast.

two years out...


time will tell...

Well, being that his approval rating is falling like a ton of bricks and President Bush is beating him on approval ratings.

by SOME numbers and not by others, nothing new or predictable or different from the polls over any other presidential candidacy....

His *** is grass and I'm gonna crush it, roll it up and smoke it

39 percent said they'd prefer a Republican.

That's a little more than supported Bush when he left office.

President Bush's approval rating is aat 47% and Obama Bin Ladens is 41% right now.

That's because the questions asked by pollers were,

Are you happy that Obama is President? = 41%

and

are you happy George Bush is not President anymore? = 47%

The other 53% were just happy he can never be again.

IT was a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.

No, we dont need two years to tell.....we already KNOW he's a gonner. He's the worst president in history.
A one term'er for sure.

time always tells,,,

Are you kidding? He inherited the biggest mess in history and the fact that your lights are on and we do not have martial law is proof enough he is doing something right. My oh my people have a short memory. Sure I am disapointed he isnt Liberal enough and didnt hang Bush and Cheney for war crimes but hey the country that was on the brink is less so now.