Some interesting items from the Washington Post/ABC News Poll:
Giuliani's frontrunner status is fueled by a broad-based perception that he is the party's most electable candidate.
Nearly half of Republicans believe Giuliani is their party's best chance of winning in November 2008; that is three or four times higher than the percentage mentioning other candidates. Democrats and independents also said Giuliani would represent the Republicans' best shot at holding onto the White House.
Yep, if Rudy Giuliani somehow lost his perception of electability, he would be down there with Ron Paul faster than a New York minute. But the electability is there, it's real, and the Republicans have lost the House and Senate. Do they really want to risk losing the presidency as well? If not, go Rudy.
At 16 percent, McCain is at his lowest point of the campaign after a month in which he reported that his campaign was nearly out of money and his campaign manager, chief strategist, finance director and communications director -- among others -- announced their resignations.
It's probably worse than that, but the trend is more important than the number here. And the trend is down.
Thompson, meanwhile, continues to be competitive as an unannounced candidate. His campaign now does not plan to make his presidential bid official until after Labor Day.
Fred Thompson is waiting until the right time. Smart. Why announce when everything's going your way? Hold your fire until you see the whites of the eyes.
And Mitt Romney faces his own challenges: If elected, Romney would become the nation's first Mormon president and that makes some uneasy. Overall, 63 percent of all Americans and 63 percent of Republicans said they would be comfortable with a Mormon as president. But only about a third of each group said they would be "entirely comfortable.
"Do Americans have a bias against Mormons? Should they? I know any American in the 1800's would have been freaked out if you told them that a member of the LDS would be runnning for president in 2008. Perhaps some of that lingers. On paper Romney looks like a near perfect candidate who should be doing better than he is. Perhaps the mormonism explains it, but i'd prefer to think that the perception of electability is more to blame. Romney will not flip Massachusetts or any of the NE states over to the Republicans. He will have to fight just as hard in the other states. Compared to Rudy, he's just not as electable.
Reader Comments ( Page 5 of 5)
61.
Vote Rudy
Neville Ramdeholl at 2:28PM on Aug 8th 2007
62. Suppose to be Christianity and churches gives us hope and peace but the way I look at it and hearing some religious leader attacking the Mormon church doesn't seems true to me.I rather be a Mormon and move forward than getting caught in the avalanche of hatemongers.
Jor at 9:37AM on Aug 8th 2007
63. Say, to the last comment, Rudy's children are ungrateful to him. Okay , their parents are divorced but I have a strong suspicion that his ex-wife is turning them against their dad. That's okay, but wait until he becomes president and we'll see they become turncoats. Vote Rudy
Neville Ramdeholl at 8:56PM on Aug 8th 2007
64. Rudy is the most electable republican......ROTFLMAO!
If Rudy somehow makes it to the general election, he will get DESTROYED. Rudy is running on what he did in New York after 9/11, that's about it. This will be a problem seeing as many of the New York firemen who worked with Guillani don't like that job he did. The Democrats will be giving these people megaphones.
Other then that he represents the worse of George W. Bush in terms of fighting the war on terror.
thequietkid10 at 2:07AM on Aug 9th 2007
65. Mitt Romney is such a graceful speaker, a true Reaganite, he upholds the values of federalism, and he would truely listen to his constituents. I hope that America could get over this prejudice.
Romney/ Giuliani ticket for 2008
qangelb at 2:36PM on Aug 9th 2007
66. Mitt is not the first Mormon to run for president. A candidate in the 1844 campaign was Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, who intended to run with Sidney Rigdon as his running mate. The effort was aborted when Smith was murdered on June 27, 1844.
Joseph Buhanan at 11:17PM on Aug 12th 2007
67. I will not be voting for the Democrates because they are currely showing us through their leadership ( Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, Murtha, Clinton that they are too out of touch with main stream america. I can't vote for Rudy because he (as a catholic and against his faith) belives in abortion and he cheated on his 2nd wife with his current wife. I won't vote for someone who didn't honor his vows of fedality and as for his wife, I would not want a home wrecker as our First Lady. I guess I will have to go with Fred Thompson.
Sheri at 11:58PM on Aug 14th 2007