Has to be the same contingent that thinks he'd be good on Dancing with the Stars...

"insanity" isn't the right word, I think.  "Inanity"--yes.  And because these questions are so inane, I predict we'll be hearing about these "results" from now until the election.  

...would Rudy be in drag? Because if so, I'd have to put him at the top of the list.

As a mom I think it is understandable that more people would trust HRC as a babysitter.  We trust our children with those who we know, and she has been in my living room for 14+ years.

How is it racism with regard to dancing when Hillary scores higher than Obama?  I thought it was because Obama is younger and seemed to be more athletic looking. Hillary is seen as someone who would take a challenge and would work hard to excel at whatever challenge she faced. You are reaching and playing the race card.

Note that the question isn't just your children, it's also "children you know". Just sayin' - "children you know" isn't necessarily the same as children you like. Though leaving children in the same room as Mr. Family Values seems kinda excessive - aren't there laws against child abuse?

Notice, for example, that Obama is viewed as a good dancer, but not as someone people want to babysit their children. Tell me there isn't cultural stereotyping and latent racism in that.

Your conclusion may very well be accurate, but the polling doesn't support it. Obama finished fourth overall on the baby sitting question, behind the "security mom" candidate, the "working families" candidate, and the "grandfatherly" candidate. He actually does pretty well from my perspective.

I remember the babysitting thing from '96, Bruce Willis was at a Dole rally saying that he and his wife had been watching the debate, and he turned and asked his wife which man he'd rather have watching the kids, and his wife said, "Dole! No contest!" (or something like that). Got a huge applause from the crowd. The next day, polls showed that the public disagreed with Mr and Mrs Willis by about four-to-one.

Mrs Willis (aka Demi Moore) had a month or two before posed for a Vanity Fair cover, naked, eight months pregnant and body-painted red white and blue.

It was perhaps teh silliest moment in politics ever, as  the name Monica meant nothing at that date.

Actually, I think these questions are too specific to be of much use.

Everyone in the country saw John Edwards carrying around his two young children during the last presidential campaign. It's really no surprise that people associate "fatherhood" with him more immediately than they do with Obama. If you have a pre-existing image in your memory banks of a man carrying around a sleepy five-year-old child, is it a big surprise you'd be more likely to pick him out of a lineup as someone who'd be a good babysitter?

With Hillary I'm sure there's that automatic bias towards a female babysitter, but on the other hand, the traditional gender bias towards male high-school principals went out the window with her -- quite possibly because everyone in the country has all those images in their memory banks of her successfully raising a teenager, so they automatically figure she'd be good at it, just like they automatically figure Edwards must be good at taking care of young children.

I bet you a Coke that if Obama wins the nomination and we see 10,000 images of him playing with his grade-school daughters, you'll see the percentage of people who think he'd make a good babysitter shoot up.

For some reason I'm finding it mildly amusing that two of the candidates here-- Barack Obama and Newt Gingrich-- actually have real-world teaching experience, yet neither did particularly well on the high school principal question. Maybe this is like the "candidate you'd most like to have a beer with" being the non-drinker?

(Mind you, I don't know if Gingrich was a good history professor, but...)

Incidentally, looking at the full poll here, it's fascinating to look over the "current events" questions-- about Iraq, about the prosecutor firings-- and see how consistently the pro-administration view of the situation hovers right at or around that magical 30% threshold...

If I were Obama, i'd demand a recount...

CA Pol Junkie's Grand Unifying Theory of Presidential Politics states,

The winner of the presidential general election is the candidate who would win an election to be Prom King

It works back to at least 1976 - you don't need to worry about silly stuff like issues, experience, or tax plans.  People just choose the cool dude.  (Until proven otherwise, I think Ms. Clinton would need to win the "dude" contest on that level as well, disadvantageous to her though it may be.)

That means Edwards and Obama (in no particular order) are our best choices, and Romney and Thompson (probably in that order) would be the GOP's.  You heard it here first!

Hell no, I wouldn't want Obama babysitting my children: because then he wouldn't be hanging out with me. . .duh!  Although the dancing thing. . .um, let's avoid racial stereotypes please.  

It is nice to see the pollsters having some fun.  Seriously, those guys need to get out more.  

This is not particularly useful and was completely predictable for those questions:

Anything having to do with children, most would favor a woman.

When it comes to a school principle, in addition to the association with children angle is the disciplinarian aspect, hence the rise in the authoritarians ghouliani and mccain.

Your Edwards analysis is right out of reinforcing false republican talking points of him being a girly man (give up the kool aid, its bad for everyone's health). But a less republican cultist view could easily conclude the low showing on (1) is that he is not authoritarian and the high showing on (3) is that he is responsible, but fun - after all kids want a baby sitter that is fun, not one that is nurturing.

And yes, Americans think blacks inherently have soul so Obama scores on the dancing, just like they think girls like dancing more than boys so Clinton has an edge.
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I would also like to know what 3% of the population would like to leave their children with Gingrich. That is a truly horrifying proposition