---
title: "Paul Ryan in a Word: ’Conservative,’ ’Intelligent’"
description: "As Paul Ryan prepares to accept his nomination as the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, the American public has a mixed impression of him. When asked what one word comes to mind when thinking about Ryan, the most frequent responses are conservative, intelligent, good, unknown, and young. In the latest national survey by the Pew Research […]"
date: "2012-08-29"
authors:
  - name: "Pew Research Center"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2012/08/29/paul-ryan-in-a-word-conservative-intelligent/"
categories:
  - "Election 2012"
  - "U.S. Elections & Voters"
datasets:
  - name: "August 23-26 2012 Weekly Survey"
    url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/august-23-26-2012-weekly-survey/"
---

# Paul Ryan in a Word: ’Conservative,’ ’Intelligent’

[![](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2012/08/PP_12.08.28_oneWord-Ryan.png)](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/08/PP_12.08.28_oneWord-Ryan.png)

As Paul Ryan prepares to accept his nomination as the GOP’s vice presidential candidate, the American public has a mixed impression of him. When asked what one word comes to mind when thinking about Ryan, the most frequent responses are *conservative*, *intelligent*, *good*, *unknown*, and *young*.

In the latest national survey by the Pew Research Center and the [Washington Post](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2012/08/29/why-the-gop-is-winning-the-battle-over-paul-ryan/), conducted August 23-26 among 1,010 adults, people offer a roughly equal number of positive and negative descriptions. Of those offering a word, 37% describe Ryan in clearly positive terms, using such words as *intelligent*, *good*, *energetic* , *honest* and *smart*. Another 35% of the words used are clearly negative in tone, such as *idiot*, *extreme*, *phony* and *scary*. The remaining 28% of the descriptions were not clearly positive or negative, such as *conservative*, *unknown* and *young*.

Not surprisingly, most Republicans offer positive words in describing Ryan, while most Democrats volunteer negative words. Among Republicans who volunteered a description, 69% offer positive words, most commonly *intelligent*, *good* and *honest*. Another 27% of Republicans offer neutral words, including *young* and *conservative*, while just 4% offer a negative description.

![](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2012/08/8-29-12-2.png)

A 59% majority of Democrats offer a negative word in describing Ryan, with 32% volunteering a neutral assessment and 9% a positive word. Independents offer an equal mix of positively toned (36%) and negatively toned (38%) descriptions.

While Americans offer a wide range of descriptions of Ryan, a few themes stand out. References to his intelligence are common, with more positive assessments (25 people used the word *intelligent*, another 13 *smart*, 4 *knowledgeable*, 4 *sharp* and 3 *educated*) than negative (10 people called Ryan an *idiot*, 5 described him as *stupid* and 4 as *clueless*).

Ryan’s ideology is another often noted characteristic. The single most often used description is *conservative*, offered by 26 people. Another 4 people specifically identify Ryan as *too conservative*, while 8 call him *extreme*.

There are also extremes in views of Ryan’s honesty. On the positive side, 15 use the word *honest* to describe him, 5 offer the word *integrity*, and 4 *dedicated*. But on the negative side, 7 call Ryan *phony*, 4 *disingenuous*, 4 *fake*, 4 *liar*, and 3 *sneaky*.

The public’s impressions of Ryan are quite different from how people described [Sarah Palin four years ago](https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2008/09/18/mccain-gains-on-issues-but-stalls-as-candidate-of-change/). A few weeks after her nomination, the most common word used to describe Palin was *inexperienced*, though many offered positive views such as *strong* and *refreshing* as well.