President ObamaNASHVILLE — Tennesseans are lukewarm on President Barack Obama, but they prefer him slightly to former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin in a hypothetical 2012 matchup, a Vanderbilt University poll has found.
A majority of Tennesseans disapproves of Obama’s job performance, even as his popularity increased nationwide after the Arizona shootings in early January.
But Obama holds a nearly 5-percentage point edge over Palin, one of the top candidates for the Republican presidential nomination, among the 710 Tennesseans polled by Vanderbilt’s Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions.
The finding suggests that the Republican Party stands a good chance of holding on to Tennessee next year, but Palin still would have to win over many in the state, including independents and tea party activists, said Josh Clinton, a Vanderbilt political science professor who co-directed the poll.
“There are lots of opportunities there for a Republican who isn’t Palin,” Clinton said.