Everybody knows Colin Powell is a popular guy. But how strong is he as a presidential candidate when matched one-on-one against the Republican party’s top sluggers, Bob Dole and Phil Gramm? Ed Goeas of the Tarrance Group found out for us. In a national survey in early October, Goeas asked Republican primary voters to make a choice: If the race came down to Powell vs. Dole, whom would they prefer? Dole prevailed, 50 percent to 39 percent — not much of a margin for the “front-runner” against an unannounced candidate. But the startling result Goeas found was when he matched Powell against Gramm. The result: Powell 60, Gramm 28. Sobering news for Gramm, who has been running second, if a distant second, to Dole throughout the year.
All this is striking news to those who have always assumed that a conservative like Gramm would beat a moderate like Powell among the supposedly red-meat, angry-white-male Republican faithful. No way of saying how the dynamics of an actual campaign would play out, but numbers like these will keep the Powell boomlet alive and well for the next while.
