Ideology of Huntsman, Romney, Paul close

PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 29 (UPI) -- U.S. residents said ideologies of Republican presidential hopefuls Jon Huntsman, Mitt Romney, and Ron Paul were closer to their own, a Gallup survey indicated.

The Gallup-USA Today poll released Thursday asked respondents to rate their own ideology, the ideology of the eight major GOP presidential candidates and President Obama on a 5-point scale with 1 being very liberal and 5 being very conservative.

The mean score of 3.3 means the average American in the survey was slightly to the right of center ideologically.

Results indicate Huntsman's 3.3 score matches the mean, but excluded the 45 percent who said they did not have an opinion of the former Utah governor. Romney's and Paul's 3.5 scores also were close to the average respondent's ideology.

Overall, 42 percent of those asked described themselves as very conservative or conservative, 19 percent said they were very liberal or liberal and 37 percent said they were moderate, the Princeton, N.J., polling agency said.

Fifty-seven percent said they perceived Obama as liberal, with a 2.3 rating.

Bachmann received a 4.0 rating and 58 percent of respondents said they thought she was conservative or very conservative.

Results are based on nationwide telephone interviews with 1,019 adults conducted Dec. 15-18. The margin of error for the total sample is 4 percentage points, and higher for samples involving Democrats, Republicans and independents.