Note to John Kerry: Don’t quit your day job
12/01/06

If John Kerry is seriously considering running for president again in 2008, a “likability” poll released Monday does not bode well for his chances of winning.

The poll asked respondents to rate 20 political figures on a "feeling thermometer." The warmer or more favorable they felt toward a person the higher score they gave them. Looking at Kerry’s ratings, I think they were using a rectal thermometer.

Among those placing ahead of Kerry were about a dozen potential 2008 White House rivals, including Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Republican Sen. John McCain.

George Bush finished 15th, behind former Vice President Al Gore, who was 14th. Gore responded to this news by saying, “Oh great – now you like me.”

If this poll is correct, Kerry’s chances of taking up residency at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. are about as good as … well, about as good as his chances were in 2004.

"This is bad, bad news for Kerry," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute in Hamden, Connecticut, which conducted the survey. "Americans know who he is, and have pretty much decided they don't like him."

Maybe I missed something, but I thought this was pretty much settled during the last presidential election.

The poll found that 95 percent of respondents said they had heard enough about Kerry to rate the Massachusetts Democrat. In this poll, Kerry rated 39.6. This placed him behind Kid Rock and only slightly ahead of Michael “Kramer” Richards.

In the poll, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, ranked first with a mean score of 64.2, followed by Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who scored 58.8

While Obama received a high score, 41 percent said they had not heard enough about the first-term senator to offer an opinion. Many respondents who were regular viewers of Fox News confused Obama with “that Al Queda guy.”