Clinton leads "anti" candidate presidential poll

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton tops the list of "anti" candidates in a poll that asks Americans who they would most want to keep out of the White House, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday.

Forty-percent of Americans said they would vote against Clinton, a New York Democrat, according to a Fox 5-The Washington Times-Rasmussen Reports poll.

Clinton scored more than twice the total of the No. 2 "anti" pick, Republican Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor.

"Hillary Clinton is better known than any (other) presidential candidate on either side. She has a lot of people who love her and a lot of people who hate her" said pollster Scott Rasmussen.

Sixty-four percent of Republicans and more than half of adult men under 40 said they would use their vote against Clinton, the poll found.

Giuliani drew the strongest opposition from Democrats, with 30 percent saying they would vote to bar him from the presidency, according to the poll.

Among the other candidates, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama also scored double-digit opposition with 11 percent saying they would consider using their vote against him, The Washington Times said.

Republican Mitt Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, rounded out the leading "anti" candidates with seven percent opposition, the survey found.

The poll of 1,000 adults, taken December 11 to 12, has a margin of error of five percentage points.