Most Americans want the next president to reverse a large number of President Barack Obama's policies.
When asked to describe their perfect candidate, 57 percent of respondents said "the candidate would change most of the policies of the Obama administration," while 41 percent said their perfect candidate would continue most of Obama's policies.
Twenty-eight percent of the 1,095 American polled identified as Democrats, and 24 percent as Republicans, with the rest identifying as independents or were not registered, according to a poll conducted by CNN and ORC International.
A decent majority, 59 percent, also said their ideal candidate would have "a lot of experience as an executive, either in government or business, with strong leadership skills," rather than a legislator. An equal number of respondents said the ideal candidate would have "been in the public eye as a political leader for many years."
When CNN asked about religion, 56 percent said they want a candidate who "believes religious views have no place in government," while 42 percent said "religious views should drive policy actions."
The poll was conducted via telephone between March 13 and 15 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
According to the March 23 Rasmussen polling data, 48 percent of likely U.S. voters approve of Obama's job performance while 50 percent disapprove.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll released this week found that Americans even prefer fictional presidents over Obama. According to the poll, only 46 percent of Americans have a favorable view of Obama, while 82 percent gave a positive rating to Jed Bartlet of "The West Wing."
