For some reason, Barack Obama doesn't seem to suffer from a lack of name ID in Arizona. A new Cronkite/Eight Poll asked the following open-ended question: "Next year we will elect a new president. Is there a candidate you would like to see become the next president of the United States ? If so, who?" Fifty-one percent didn't offer an opinion, but here are the results from the 49 percent who did:

McCain 28
Obama 20
Clinton 18
Edwards 5
Giuliani 5
Romney 4

Given his impressive results on that question, it's no surprise Obama finished at the top of a subsequent question asking Arizona Democrats for preferences among four main challengers for the party nomination:

Obama 29
Clinton 23
Edwards 15
Gore 12
No opinion 21

On the Republican side, McCain beat out the following named candidates with 54% of the vote: Gingrich (14%), Romney (9%), Hunter (2%), No Opinion (21). Rudy Giuliani was not included on the list.

Two more items of interest. Fifty two percent (52%) of those surveyed oppose President Bush's plan to surge troops in Iraq. Also, when asked what "ONE issue or problem you would like to see the Arizona legislature try to do something about IN 2007?" illegal immigration topped the list with 33%. Education was the next closest issue at 20%.

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