Ahead of Iowa, Republican RaceIs Wide Open

Wall Street Journal ^ | Dec. 20,. 2007 | JOHN HARWOOD

[FocusNexus]

A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that Rudy Giuliani has lost his national lead in the Republican field after a flurry of negative publicity about his personal and business activities, setting the stage for what could be the party's most competitive nomination fight in decades.

After holding a double-digit advantage over his nearest rivals just six weeks ago, the former New York City mayor now is tied nationally with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 20% among Republicans, just slightly ahead of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 17% and Arizona Sen. John McCain at 14%. Other polls show Mr. Giuliani's lead shrinking in Florida, one of the states he has based his strategy around.

With the poll's margin of error of plus-or-minus 3.1 percentage points, that puts Mr. Huckabee, who had only single-digit support in the previous poll in early November, within striking distance of the leaders. Mr. Romney's national support has also nearly doubled since then.

[FocusNexus]

There article also has an interactive view of where the GOP candidates stand regionally, men vs. women, income, etc. It is quite interesting.

The Huckabee surge is bizarre -- Republicans must have a death wish.

[Zuben Elgenubi]

A book of mine where a sound heart and a deformed conscience come into collision and conscience suffers defeat.
- Notebook #35 (reprinted in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Univ. of California Press, 2003)

[claudiustg]

-—Mitt Romney at 20%-—

Romney!

[The Pack Knight]

They’re just uninformed about the candidates, as anyone who isn’t a news junkie would be in a non-election year. The question is whether they learn about Huckabee in time. I think they will.

[claudiustg]

Once upon a time Iowa went for Pat Robertson.I think there’s a lot of brain damage from bouncing over those frost heaves out there. No offense to Iowans.

[glmjr]

Huckabee - Best damn DEMOCRAT in the running.

“Saddle Up” partner.

[reasonisfaith]

“The Huckabee surge is bizarre”

Good description.

The Thompson surge will be real.

[Eighth Square]

Wide open is right! This thing is nowhere close to being settled.

[glmjr]

Don’t really care for the DEMOCRATIC... POPULIST ...WORLD AFFAIRS IGNORANT.....LIBERAL LEANING... PAROLING GIVING... WELFARE STATE MINDED...AMNESTY SUPPORTING....MORE GOVERNMENT CONTROL FREAK.... PREACHER HICK FROM ARKANSAS,
..........although he is the best DEMOCRAT running.

Don’t know if I said that right.

OOPS...I forgot.. BUSH BASHER and ANTI-AMERICAN

“Saddle Up” partner.

[FocusNexus]

Poll result in pdf:

http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/wsjnbcpoll20071219.pdf

[Rembrandt]

And where might all this negative campaigning be coming from? Perhaps from the woman who spent her childhood watching “I Love Lucifer.”

[FocusNexus]

Here is an interesting article about Huckabee by Ann Coulter:

Ann Coulter: THERE’S A HUCKABEE BORN EVERY MINUTE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ucac/20071220/cm_ucac/theresahuckabeeborneveryminute

“As far as I can tell, it’s mostly secular liberals swooning over Huckabee. Liberals adore Huckabee because he fits their image of what an evangelical should be: stupid and easily led.

Unfortunately recent polls how that evangelical Christian Republicans propelled Huckabee to the top tier, ignoring his liberal views on everything, besides abortion and gays.

[chaos_5]

Cool link! I think it is interesting that Thompson gets most of his support from the blue collar middle class. Even though he is behind, I think this is a good sign.

[Kevmo]

If it can happen to the liberal pro-life evangelical Huckster, it can happen to the conservative pro-life evangelical Hunter.

.

.

.

According to Intrade, the winner of the December 12th GOP debate was... Duncan Hunter.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1938773/posts

[FocusNexus]

“If it can happen to the liberal pro-life evangelical Huckster, it can happen to the conservative pro-life evangelical Hunter.”

I was actually thinking today, that if someone was going to surge, why wasn’t it Hunter?

[esarlls3]

FocusNexus, Here is the duplicate thread by Reaganesque that beat you by almost two hours:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1942035/posts

[FocusNexus]

Sorry about that.

I really did search and it didn’t come up.

[FocusNexus]

Well, I just went to the link you posted — and found that Reaganesque mistyped Republicans, and that’s probably why it didn’t come up in my search, which I dutifully performed.

“Ahead of Iowa, Repbulican Race”

[CharlesWayneCT]

I don’t generally trust news polls. I prefer to stick with Rasmussen, because at least we are comparing the same methodology day by day.

But still, it’s always better when your candidate is on top of a poll then when they aren’t.

So, go Mitt!!!

[Maynerd]

The Huckabee surge is bizarre -- Republicans must have a death wish.

Agreed Huckabee will make Goldwater's 1964 debacle look good by comparison. Huckster would be lucky to win 10 states.

Despite my disgust and contempt for all things democrat, I'm not sure I can pull the lever for Huckster, particularly if he's going to be crushed anyway.