KEY POINTS:
WASHINGTON - Democratic Senator John Kerry, mulling a second bid for the US presidency, finished dead last in a poll released today on the likeability of 20 top American political figures.
Among those placing ahead of Kerry were about a dozen potential 2008 White House rivals, including Democratic Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona.
"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," said Brown. He noted the poll found that 95 per cent of respondents said they had heard enough about Kerry, who lost the 2004 White House race to US President George W Bush, to rate the Massachusetts Democrat.
The poll of 1623 registered voters was conducted after the November 7 national elections, which saw Democrats win back control of the US Congress from Republicans.
During the congressional campaign, Kerry sought to help fellow Democrats but drew bipartisan fire for "a botched joke" about Bush and the Iraq war.
Yet even before Kerry's attempt at humour, he did not fare well in similar Quinnipiac polls this year.
The survey asked respondents to rate 20 political figures on a "feeling thermometer." The warmer or more favourable they felt toward a person the higher score they gave them on a scale of zero to 100. Respondents were given the option of saying they did not know enough about the figure to offer a rating.
In the current poll, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, a Republican, ranked first with a mean score of 64.2, followed by Democratic Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, 58.8, and McCain, 57.7. All three are potential presidential candidates.
While Obama received a high score, 41 per cent said they had not heard enough about the first-term senator to offer an opinion.
Bush finished 15th with 43.8, behind former Vice President Al Gore, a Democrat who lost the 2000 White House race to Bush, who was 14th with 44.9.
Kerry was last with a rating of 39.6. In three earlier polls this year, he never scored above 46.3.
While many presidential contenders have a chance to make "a good first impression" on voters, Brown said, "Kerry has to convince people who don't like him that they are wrong and that they should change their minds."
In the new likeability survey, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ranked fourth with 56.1, followed by former Democratic President Bill Clinton, 55.8, and Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who won re-election this month as an independent after losing the Democratic primary, 52.7.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, was seventh at 51.1, followed by two other potential presidential contenders, former Democratic Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, 49.9, and Hillary Clinton, 49.
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, another possible White House contender, ranked 10th, at 47.7. Two in three respondents said they did not know enough about him to form an opinion.
Among other possible presidential contenders were: Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, with a score of 47; Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican, 45.9; Democratic Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana, 43.3; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican, 42, and outgoing Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist, 41.5.
- REUTERS
