{"id":50279,"date":"2012-03-22T21:30:42","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T02:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2012\/03\/22\/top-one-word-reactions-to-gop-candidates\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T03:48:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T08:48:16","slug":"top-one-word-reactions-to-gop-candidates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/03\/22\/top-one-word-reactions-to-gop-candidates\/","title":{"rendered":"Top One-Word Reactions to GOP Candidates"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

When Americans are asked what one word comes to mind when thinking about Mitt Romney, no single term stands out. The most frequent responses are \u201cno\u201d or \u201cno way,\u201d and \u201crich.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

That represents a shift from October and December 2011. In both of those surveys, far more mentioned the Republican presidential candidate\u2019s Mormon faith than anything else.<\/p>\n\n

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press and The Washington Post, conducted March 15-18 among 1,009 adults, finds that more people offer negative than positive assessments of Romney. This also is the case for Romney\u2019s rivals for the GOP nomination\u2013 Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.<\/p>\n\n

As was the case in December, roughly twice as many give negative one-word descriptions of Romney than positive terms (30% vs. 14%); 29% offer neutral terms.<\/p>\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

The most frequently used negative words to describe Romney, aside from \u201cno,\u201d are \u201cflip-flopper,\u201d \u201cidiot\u201d and \u201carrogant.\u201d Positive descriptors include \u201cgood,\u201d \u201cpresident\u201d and \u201celectable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

While no single term stands out among impressions of Romney, people use the terms \u201cconservative\u201d or \u201cvery conservative\u201d most often to describe Rick Santorum. \u201cNo\u201d and other words used to connote opposition to his candidacy are a distant second. Far more respondents use the word \u201cconservative\u201d to describe Santorum than say that about Romney.<\/p>\n\n

The most frequently used negative terms for Santorum, with the exception of \u201cno,\u201d are \u201ccrazy,\u201d \u201ctoo conservative,\u201d \u201cextreme\u201d and \u201cidiot.\u201d Top positive words are \u201cgood\u201d and \u201chonest.\u201d Santorum\u2019s religious beliefs are a major theme in the responses \u2013 positive, negative and neutral \u2013 with respondents mentioning \u201creligion,\u201d \u201cChristian,\u201d and \u201coverly religious\u201d to describe him.<\/p>\n\n

Gingrich and Paul<\/h3>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

For the other GOP candidates, Gingrich and Paul, age is a recurring theme.\u00a0 Among the words most frequently offered about Newt Gingrich are \u201cold\u201d and \u201cno.\u201d Other words include \u201cidiot,\u201d people saying they do not like him and references to his intelligence.<\/p>\n\n

The most frequently offered words about Ron Paul are \u201cno\u201d or references to his age such as \u201cold.\u201d About half as many offer the word \u201clibertarian.\u201d Following that are \u201chonest,\u201d \u201ccrazy,\u201d \u201cgood,\u201d \u201cOK\u201d and \u201ctoo old.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

<\/h3>\n\n

<\/h3>\n\n

Republicans\u2019 Views of Romney, Santorum<\/h3>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, the top impressions of Romney are \u201cgood\u201d and \u201crich.\u201d In December, the top response among Republicans and Republican leaners was \u201cMormon,\u201d as it was among the public.<\/p>\n\n

The word most frequently used by Republicans and GOP leaners to describe Santorum is \u201cconservative.\u201d Other words used are \u201cgood,\u201d \u201cOK\u201d and \u201cyoung.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

<\/h3>\n\n

<\/h3>\n\n

One-Word Balance of Opinion<\/h3>\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n

Among the public, far more people use negative words than positive ones to describe their impressions of all four GOP candidates. For Romney, 14% offer positive words, while 30% offer negative words and 29% use neutral terms; 28% offer no opinion, down from 43% in December.<\/p>\n\n

Similarly, 13% use positive words for Santorum, 30% use negative words and 22% neutral terms.<\/p>\n\n

For Gingrich, about three times as many offer negative than positive words (39% vs. 10%); 23% use neutral words when asked about their impression of the former House speaker.<\/p>\n\n

Among Republicans and GOP leaners, about the same percentages use negative words as positive words to describe Romney (23% and 19%, respectively). Similarly, about as many use positive as negative terms for Santorum (24% positive vs. 18% negative).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Americans are asked what one word comes to mind when thinking about Mitt Romney, no single term stands out. The most frequent responses are \u201cno\u201d or \u201cno way,\u201d and \u201crich.\u201d That represents a shift from October and December 2011. In both of those surveys, far more mentioned the Republican presidential candidate\u2019s Mormon faith than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"Romney's Wealth Now Mentioned More than His Religion","sub_title":"Romney's Wealth Now Mentioned More than His Religion","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_api_pending":"","apple_news_is_preview":false,"apple_news_is_hidden":false,"relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[{"key":"ee472a71-0767-4945-89ac-1c0c79c50ab8","type":"topline"}],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[44,39],"tags":[],"bylines":[],"collection":[],"datasets":[1372],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[],"research-teams":[520],"workflow-status":[],"class_list":["post-50279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-election-2012","category-us-elections-voters","datasets-march-15-18-2012-weekly-survey","formats-report","research-teams-politics"],"label":false,"post_parent":0,"word_count":524,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/politics\/2012\/03\/22\/top-one-word-reactions-to-gop-candidates\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[],"table_of_contents":[],"report_materials":[{"key":"ee472a71-0767-4945-89ac-1c0c79c50ab8","type":"topline","url":false,"label":"","icon":"","attachmentId":""},{"type":"dataset","id":1372,"label":"March 15-18 2012 Weekly Survey","url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/dataset\/march-15-18-2012-weekly-survey\/"}],"report_pagination":{"current_post":null,"next_post":null,"previous_post":null,"pagination_items":[]},"parent_info":{"parent_title":"Top One-Word Reactions to GOP Candidates","parent_id":50279},"materialsOrdered":[{"key":"ee472a71-0767-4945-89ac-1c0c79c50ab8","type":"topline","url":"","label":"","attachmentId":0,"icon":""}],"chaptersOrdered":[],"partsOrdered":[],"partsEnabled":false,"datacite_doi":"","prc_seo_data":{"title":"Top One-Word Reactions to GOP Candidates","description":"When Americans are asked what one word comes to mind when thinking about Mitt Romney, no single term stands out. The most frequent responses are \u201cno\u201d or \u201cno way,\u201d and…","og_title":"Top One-Word Reactions to GOP Candidates","og_description":"","schema_type":"Article","noindex":false,"canonical_url":"","primary_terms":[],"custom_schema":[],"og_image":0,"indexnow_submitted_at":null,"gsc_index_status":null},"prepublish_checks":{"prc-image-alt-text":{"status":"incomplete","message":"5 images are missing alt text.","data":{"count":5}},"prc-about-this-research":{"status":"incomplete","message":"Add an \"About this research\" details block.","data":null},"prc-paragraph-count":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 15 paragraphs.","data":{"count":15}},"prc-internal-link":{"status":"complete","message":"Found 5 internal links.","data":{"count":5}}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"relatedPostsOrdered":[],"bylinesOrdered":[],"acknowledgementsOrdered":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50279"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":112417,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50279\/revisions\/112417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"bylines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bylines?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"collection","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/collection?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"datasets","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/datasets?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"level_of_effort","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/level_of_effort?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"primary_audience","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/primary_audience?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"information_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/information_type?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"_post_visibility","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_post_visibility?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"formats","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/formats?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"_fund_pool","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_fund_pool?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"languages","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/languages?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"regions-countries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions-countries?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"research-teams","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research-teams?post=50279"},{"taxonomy":"workflow-status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/workflow-status?post=50279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}