The Hill News

President Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) are in a statistical dead heat in a potential 2012 presidential election match-up. 

Romney edges Obama by one percentage point, 45-44 percent, in a Quinnipiac University poll of registered voters released Monday. Among other top GOP contenders, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee trails Obama 46-44 percent and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is behind by eight, 48-40 percent.

{mosads}With the midterm elections ending in Republicans taking control of the House, political observers have cast an eager eye on the 2012 president election to see if the GOP can sustain its momentum and deny Obama a second term in the White House.

But the poll bears out that a clear front runner has yet to emerge from the GOP field. Palin, Romney and Huckabee, the three leading challengers in the poll, only receive 19, 18 and 17 percent support respectively from Republican voters. 

In a good omen f! or Republicans, voters prefer to elect a new president over keeping Obama 49-43 percent. Independents backed Romney over Obama 46-35 percent and Huckabee over the president 47-40 percent.

But a plurality of independents preferred Obama to Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee, who has a 51 percent disapproval rating compared to Obama's 48-48 percent approval rating.

Quinnipiac surveyed 2,424 registered voters between Nov. 8-15. The poll has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.