Obama Even With Generic Republican, While Brown Beats GOP Heavyweights

President Obama has a two-percentage-point advantage on a generic Republican candidate in a 2012 reelection bid--well within the +/-4% statistical margin of error--Gallup reports today. Among registered voters, Obama leads 44% to 42%; among adults, he leads 43% to 42%. 11% had no opinion.

And who might that Republican be? Gallup shows its Republican and Republican-leaning respondents (of which there were 490) to prefer Mitt Romney.

But Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown (R) beats some of the bigger names in the GOP field--which shows what a little name recognition can do. Brown comes in ahead of Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, and Tim Pawlenty.

Here's how the GOP candidate list broke down, by candidate and percent of support. 36 percent of GOP respondents had no opinion.

Mitt Romney       14
Sarah Palin          11
John McCain        7
Scott Brown          4
Mike Huckabee    3
Newt Gingrich      3
Ron Paul                2
Tim Pawlenty       1
Bob McDonnell    1
Fred Thompson   1
Bobby Jindal        1
Other                     10
None                       6
No opinion          36

Gallup polled 1,042 adults (942 registered voters) nationwide eb. 1-3 for the survey.