United States presidential election, 2012

The 2012 United States Presidential Election is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, November 6, 2012. It will occur at the same time as elections to all seats in the House of Representatives and to one-third of seats in the Senate. Incumbent Democratic president Barack Obama is presumed to be seeking re-election in this election. As yet, no Republicans have declared their candidacy. The current front-runners, however, are former governors Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee, Governors Bobby Jindal and Tim Pawlenty, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich.

Republican Candidates

Candidate	Pros	Cons	Fox News Exposure
Mitt Romney	First runner-up in 2008	Somewhat liberal record; other Republicans do not seem to like him	Rarely allowed on Fox
Sarah Palin	Photogenic, attracts crowds, personally pro-life	Doubts whether she is a movement conservative; resigned early as governor	Promoted by Fox
John Thune	Defeated Tom Daschle; also taller than Obama	Not widely known yet; formerly supported McCain-Feingold campaign finance	Rarely allowed on Fox
Newt Gingrich	Articulate, credited with 1994 landslide	Takes not-so-conservative positions today	Promoted by Fox
Mike Huckabee	Pro-life, pro-Second Amendment and pro-Bible	Supported bigger government, released man who then killed officers	Promoted by Fox
Jeb Bush	More conservative than George, and popular in pivotal Florida	Could be tagged with negatives via George, which may cause Jeb to wait until 2016	Does not appear on Fox
Bob McDonnell	won landslide election as Virginia governor; has Obama's height	Not widely known yet, but gave Republican response to State of the Union	Rarely allowed on Fox
Tim Pawlenty	Young; popular in his home state	Still not well known outside of Minnesota; accepted stimulus funds after arguing against them	Sometimes on Fox