Rick Perry Leads Florida Poll Going Into Debate, Followed by Mitt Romney and Still... Sarah Palin

By Matthew Hendley Thu., Sep. 22 2011 at 5:36 PM

Categories: Election

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Texas Gov. Rick Perry

Without much difference from the national poll released the day of the CNN/Tea Party express GOP presidential debate two weeks ago, most Florida Republicans would pick Texas Gov. Rick Perry as their presidential nominee, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

The poll showed that 28 percent of the 374 Florida Republican voters surveyed said they'd likely support Perry for the GOP nomination, followed by former Massachusetts Gov. Romney at 22 percent and a woman who isn't even running for president (as of yet) -- former Alaska ~~quitter~~ Gov. Sarah Palin -- at 8 percent.

Without Palin, Perry leads Romney 31-22, with pizza man Herman Cain and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich both pulling 8 percent.

Quinnipiac also found that in the Republican primary race for the U.S. Senate, 17 would select George LeMieux, 11 percent would choose Mike McCalister, and 58 percent have no f***ing clue.

When they added Democrats into the mix, the pollsters found Obama would beat Perry in a hypothetical matchup 44-42 percent, but Romney would beat Obama 47-40.

Sen. Bill Nelson received a 45 percent approval rating -- 39 percent for Obama -- and 63 percent of Floridians said they are either somewhat or very dissatisfied with how things are going in Florida in general.

On the topic of social security, 46 percent of Republicans said they had a favorable view of the program, with 35 percent negative -- although, somehow, 52 percent of Republicans said it's fair to call social security a "Ponzi scheme."

Twenty-four percent of Republicans also said they support raising social security taxes to bring more money into the system.

Quinnipiac seemed to forget adding a question on whether HPV vaccines cause "mental retardation," as Rep. Michele Bachmann seems to think, which would seem like an accurate way to gauge the amount of people who believe the inaccuracies that come out of her mouth.

As your last reminder from the Pulp, the debate airs on Fox News live at 9 p.m., and we'll give you a recap Friday morning.

Follow The Pulp on Facebook and on Twitter: @ThePulpBPB. Follow Matthew Hendley on Facebook and on Twitter: @MatthewHendley.

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