Posted on 08/30/2006 5:10:30 AM PDT by areafiftyone
WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani are America's top choices to run for president, but a new poll says the Democratic senator faces a tougher fight than the GOP ex-mayor in getting nominated.
Giuliani and Clinton each are the first choice of 32 percent of their parties' voters, the survey by RT Strategies and the Cook Political Report found.
But 49 percent of Democrats think Clinton can't win a general election.
"That's a huge number," said pollster Tom Riehle, who explained he asked that question because Clinton's biggest barrier to winning the Democratic nomination is the wide belief in her party that she would lose.
Riehle said Giuliani's top hurdle is the idea he's too liberal for GOP primary voters, so the poll asked whether Republicans should nominate him, given his support for abortion rights, gun control and gay rights.
More than half of registered Republicans -- 56 percent -- said the party should pick Rudy. "It's surprising how low the barrier is for him to get over his issues differences with Republican voters," Riehle said.
He said one of the root reasons for Clinton's challenges and Giuliani's strength is their likability. Asked to rate how much they like the two politicians on a scale of 0 to 100, Giuliani scores 59.4, while Clinton rates 43.9.
The Giuliani camp declined to comment.
"We're focused on '06," said Clinton adviser Howard Wolfson.
The evil of two lessers.
When has this ever stopped them before?
It won't stop Hillary unless the Senate offers her something better. Hillary has her eye on 2008.
Certain parts of my body have a better chance of being elected President.
Any 'Rat who tries to stand in the way of Hitlery in 2008 is either incredibly naive or suicidal.
Is there is a poll that doesn't have Rudy in the lead??
Only one that I've seen from Arizona and it has McCain leading. That's about it.
Unlike Al Gore, I guess McCain would win his home state. :)
That's about all he'll win. He should stick with a life in the Senate like Byrd.
You have a good point. I've yet to see Hillary campaign hard. She had it easy in NY State that is why she chose that state to run.
((((PING))))
I think we're going to go back to where we were before Clinton's excesses goaded people to get off the sidelines and vote. Barring some new candidate with Reagan's sort of inspirational speaches - a lot of people (at least on the right) are going to sit the 2008 elections. Even the sidebar poll here at FR bears this out, and we're political activists
I can't argue with you on that statement. I've read on these threads posts from Freepers saying they will sit it out. But, that's their choice.
Rudy definitely will get the Independent vote and even some moderate Democrats will vote for him too.
Geez, way far left of center and left of center.
Where is the conservative in this race?
I certainly will not sit out a presidential election, but I will not vote for a liberal (Rudy) either.
At first I thought it was just me, but now I'm seeing it the same way you are. It's not just me, it's a lot of people. There were so many reasons to be excited about Bush in 2000 and in 2004. By comparison there is absolutelyl nothing to be excited about in 08.
I will not sit out the election either. I will vote for Rudy in the primaries but whomever wins the Republican primary (even if it's "ACK!" "PATOOOEY!") McCain - they got my vote and support. I will not vote third party. I did that in 92 and got Bill Clinton.
Well another day and another poll with Rudy in the lead.
But don't worry once the voters REALLY get to know him he will lose support. (SARC)
This poll should unhinge few people.
The Democrats who don't want Hillary to be their nominee in 2008 are dreaming. Resistance is futile. She wants the nomination and she'll get the nomination, by hook or crook.
Reagan won because he had enormous likeability, wide across the board appeal, not because he spouted religious ideology.
Go Rudy Go!!!!
The bottom line is that for many Republicans, Fiscal trumps social every time. Not too many people care about the gay issue. It just doesn't have a profound effect on their lives.
Gun control is a little different. Rudy will have to back-pedal on this one. But National Security is huge this time around (like it should be every time). Don't know Rudy's track record on shrinking government. It's probably bad. But Bush has done exactly squat in this area, and has made things worse in general.
People hate Hillary. That will get her in the end. No Republican would EVER vote for her. But Democrats? Many of them WOULD vote for Rudy. That's the difference.
That's only because folks haven't read today's daily rant by FR's own gay-obsessed anti-Rudy Rona Barrett. /sarcasm
This poll should unhinge few people.
LOL. That assumes these characters are "hinged" to begin with.
I guess we can only hope that by picking time some others will step up to the plate. If not then it seems to be between McCain/Giuliani
And that is all one needs to know to see that this country is moribund.
Love that one!
There were only two choices on this poll. That is not the way it will really be. These two will not be the nominee.
Do we pick the gun-grabbing nutbag or the gun-grabbing nutbag?
Maybe we should just go shooting.
"[a second choice was asked but I've omitted that response]"
Was this in Massachusets?
Oops! Still getting used to my new eyes!
OOPS!
Those are idiots. There are large numbers of idiots here too.
Another day another poll "shoving" Guiliani down our innocent throats. Yawn.
Reagan was unique in that he had decades of tv time to prepare people to like him. This was what disarmed his critics and people could not bring themselves to hate the man who had spent Sunday nights in our living rooms introducing good tv shows. Or who had brought us Death Valley Days tales of good vs evil. His politics were not that different from many conservatives and he was no fanatic but knew when he had to compromise to get the job done. Reagan whould be a huge fan of the President as is his widow.
I agree. My point was Reagan's name recognition, enormous likeability and appeal to moderates and even democrats were the reason he was elected.
The Real Rudy Giuliani:
Read more about Giuliani's liberal positions here and here.
- Pro-abortion - He even opposes banning partial birth murder.
- Anti-2nd Amendment - supports gun grabbing legislation including the Brady Bill and the Assault Weapon Ban
- Pro-big government - amassed unprecedented debt as Mayor of NYC
- Pro-radical gay agenda
- Supports gay marriage
- Attended every gay pride parade in NYC while mayor (even one in 1992 that included a NAMBLA contingent of pedophile activists)
- Has received many awards from radical gay groups
- Attends and supports many functions and fund-raisers held by radical gay organizations (even did a cross dressing act at Pride Agenda fund-raiser)- Pro-illegal immigration - said no one in New York City is going to assist the federal government with the enforcement of immigration law, sued Feds in 1997 to be able to ignore immigration law, lost in court, vowed to ignore law anyway
- Endorses liberal Democrat candidates over Republicans - endorsed liberal Dem Mario Cuomo over Republican George Pataki in NY Governor's race
- Ran for NYC Mayor in 1994 on Liberal Party ticket. Appointed Liberal Party State Chair to a Deputy Mayor position. Endorsed 3 times by the Liberal Party for his liberal views.
- Holds many other liberal views
- Republican In Name Only - opposes many major planks of the GOP Platform
Some people want Republicans to ignore his liberalism on almost every issue and, as a distraction, they try to pretend that Rudy is fiscally conservative. Again, his record shows that he isn't fiscally conservative either:
According to an article in The Nation from 2002:
It's now apparent that Giuliani purchased the city's good times partially with borrowed money and left his successor, Mike Bloomberg, holding a bag of debt. New York City went from a $3 billion budget surplus in 1998 to a $4.5 billion deficit after Giuliani left office. This mismanagement of prosperity is a big part of his legacy. Giuliani left the city's finances in a mess...Here are some things Giuliani did as Mayor that were NOT anywhere near being fiscally conservative:
- New York City went from a $3 billion budget surplus in 1998 to a $4.5 billion deficit after Giuliani left office.
- Added 25,000 government employees patronage hires to the city's payroll after promising to cut the work force.
- Giuliani's borrowing practices increased the city's debt burden by 50 percent.
- Partly because of Giuliani, New York City is now the biggest debtor in the nation outside of the federal government with $42 billion in loans outstanding.
According to the article from The Nation:
During the 1960s Giuliani was a self-described "Robert Kennedy Democrat." He identified with RFK as a liberal Catholic prosecutor. He volunteered for RFK's 1968 presidential campaign while he was a student at NYU Law School. Giuliani also voted for George McGovern in 1972. During the liberal 1960s, he was a liberal.So, to sum that up:But in 1975 Giuliani switched his party registration from Democrat to Independent when he got a job in Gerald Ford's Justice Department, according to his mentor Harold "Ace" Tyler.
On December 8, 1980, Giuliani changed his registration from Independent to Republican. This was one month after Ronald Reagan's election, and just as he was applying for a top job in the Justice Department.
He's a liberal. He's not even in the same building as conservative. He's only a Republican because...and this comes from his own mother, Helen Giuliani:
- Liberal Democrat until 1975
- Worked as volunteer for Democrat Robert F. Kennedy's presidential campaign.
- Voted for liberal George McGovern.
- Liberal Independent from 1975-1980.
- Did not register as a Republican until 1980 and only AFTER Ronald Reagan was elected and because he was applying for a top job in the administration.
"He only became a Republican after he began to get all these jobs from them. He's definitely not a conservative Republican. He thinks he is, but he isn't..."And as John Hawkins put it in an excellent article in Human Events:
Despite all of his charisma and the wonderful leadership he showed after 9/11, Rudy Giuliani is not a Reagan Republican. To the contrary, Giuliani is another Christie Todd Whitman, another Arlen Specter, another Olympia Snowe. He's a throwback to the "bad old days" before Reagan, when the GOP was run by moderate Country Club Republicans who considered conservatives to be extremists. Trying to revive that failed strategy again is likely to lead to a Democratic President in 2008 and numerous setbacks for the Republican Party.
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