Gallup: Huckabee in strongest position ahead of 2012

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has plenty of observers doubting that he'll actually mount another presidential bid next year, but a new analysis from Gallup finds him best positioned with Republican voters among a sizable group of rumored GOP contenders.  

No potential candidate on the Republican side matches the intensity of support that Huckabee garners among GOP voters, according to Gallup's tracking data from the past two weeks.

Using the favorability ratings of the potential contenders, Gallup calculated what it calls a "positive intensity score" for each rumored hopeful, aimed at measuring which candidate elicits the strongest level of support from GOP voters.

Huckabee topped that measure, followed by conservative talk host Herman Cain, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Rep. Michele Bachmann (Minn.). While Cain and Bachmann scored well in the intensity department, neither are nearly as well known as Huckabee, Romney or Gingrich.  

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and Rep. Ron Paul (Texas) both boast high name recognition, but fall short when it comes to generating as much positive enthusiasm among Republicans as Huckabee does.

When both name id and intensity of support are taken into account, the top three are Huckabee, Romney and Gingrich.

"Gingrich and Romney are clearly in second place behind Huckabee, based on their name identification and Positive Intensity Scores," wrote Gallup's Frank Newport. "However, neither man generates levels of support from Republicans that are as high as Huckabee's, and neither has been able to change his status much over the last month."

Palin, meanwhile, tops every other rumored contender when it comes to name id, but she falls below six other potential candidates when it comes to "positive intensity." 
 
For Huckabee, it's the latest in a string of statistical measures that show him near or at the top of a still undefined race for the GOP nomination. The former governor insists that he hasn't made a decision on 2012 just yet, saying earlier this month that he's strongly considering another run next year.

It comes as activists in some of the early states are beginning to question what he's waiting for and as other rumored contenders snatch up key staffers from his 2008 operation. Iowa strategist Eric Woolson, who ran Huckabee's winning Iowa effort last time around, is advising Pawlenty. And Bachmann just signed former Huckabee Iowa political director Wes Enos as a consultant for her political action committee.