59, 38, 32, 5, 1

hughhewitt.townhall.com ^ | 01/20/2008 | Hugh Hewitt

[Domandred]

since the economy is going to be a huge thing going forward

I'm beginning to think that Mitt is the only candidate (including the Dems and dropouts) that is going to be able to tackle the economic issue, and he has the real world resume to back that up.

The real question becomes is the economic issue going to get bad enough to move to high priority on people's voting lists.

[Signalman]

Fred and Huckabee are finished. It is McCain, Romney, or maybe Guliani. Take your pick.

Correct. It is down to these three. Huckster won his first, and last, primary when he took Iowa. Fred, sorry to say, has not a chance. Therefore, it is, as you say, down to McCain, Romney and Giuliani.

As an economic Conservative, here's how I see it:

McCain: Against drilling in ANWR, McCain-Feingold, Amnesty Bill. Gang of 14. Agains waterboarding: Not good. Believes in global warming. McCain shines as a potential CIC,and is strong on the WOT. He says that he voted against the Bush tax cuts because there were no provisions to also cut spending. Sounds fairly reasonable to me but I still think he should have voted for the tax cuts.

Giuliani: Fiscal conservative, turned NYC from a crime-ridden sewer into a decent city. He DID turn NYC around. He would make a great CIC. His past personal life has problems and would likely be used against him by the Clinton slime machine.

Romney: Highly successful in the world of commerce. Against amnesty, believes in ending the capital gains tax and tax on interest income. Fiscal conservative. Will increase the size and strength of the military. Impeccable private background (as far as we know).

I like Rudy. McCain? I'll vote for him if he is the nominee but with no degree of enthusiasm. For me, its Mitt Romney.

[GregoTX]

Thanks Checkers for the information as to where we currently stand.

[businessprofessor]

I will support Romney in the Colorado caucas. I was a strong Thompson supporter but it looks like the end of the road for him. McCain has little support among Republicans. He will not win any closed primaries.

[Allegra]

Thompson is/was my choice but no matter who ends up the nominee, they have my vote, even McInsane.

hillary MUST be denied the WH for the sake of our country.

My sentiments exactly. It would be difficult for me to vote for McCain, but I'll do anything to keep that Clinton-monster out of the White House.

I'm disappointed that Thompson and Hunter didn't generate more enthusiasm, but I'll go with what there is.

Likely the lesser of two evils.

Again.

[TLI]

And CNN is giving truckloads of face time to . . .

McCain(1st), Huckabee(2nd), Romney (4th), and Giuliani(6th), but not a damn word about Fred Thompson(3rd).

Same with FOX. Right now Rooty has been on live for about 11 minutes. This morning CNN had Rooty on live for about 30 minutes. I have been sitting here at work watching the FOX and CNN monitors and today, ALL DAY, there has been less than 3 minutes TOTAL for Fred Thompson on the two COMBINED.

Tell you the truth I have royally had it with the media, my observations of it here clearly indicate that there is an agenda to blackout Fred and Promote the liberal RINO's

BTW, all the time I have been typing this, CNN STILL has Julie-Annie on live in FL. It has been about 18 minutes now.

If this nation sinks because of a thinly-veiled communist Presidency we can look squarely to the liberal DBM.

[Rumierules]

McCain is polling well in Florida despite its closed primary. The polls were pretty accurate in South Carolina.

I wish your prediction were true.

[littlehouse36]

His past personal life has problems and would likely be used against him by the Clinton slime machine.

---

Rudy is a choir-boy when compared to Bill.

[Nonstatist]

He will not win any closed primaries.

He'll probably win the split Florida winner take all primary with 25 % or so, and then do well on super tuesday

Its flukey, but this heretic is the odds on favorite to win the nomination

[Ditter]

To do ANYTHING other than try to keep hillary out of the WH is my definition of totally crazy. Yet we will have fellow freepers on here soon telling both of us that they are up to here with RINO’s and they plan to write someones name in. If they don’t get their way they are quiting.

THAT IS WHAT IS CRAZY, PEOPLE, IT IS PLUMB NUTS!

[3niner]

Here's a pretty good site showing projected delegates (and much more) for both Democrats and Republicans.

There is a lot of guesswork with this stuff. They are projecting 3 delegates for Fred Thompson, from Nevada, based on the percentage of support he got yesterday, in the straw poll, at the caucuses. What really counts is delegates going to the county conventions, who will elect delegates to the state convention, who will elect delegates to the national convention, and nobody knows who these county delegates support, at this point. Though most of them, doubtless, support Romney.

I am a delegate to my county convention, and will support Fred, if he is still running when we have our county convention.

[3niner]

There is no reason to stop supporting Fred, if he stays in the race all the way to the national convention. The more support he has, the more leverage he will have, and there's an outside chance he could win the nomination with only 10% of the delegates going in.

A deadlocked convention presents all kinds of interesting possibilities.

Getting the Republican nominee late, could actually be an advantage in the general election. Whoever we nominate will be a target for all of the dirt that the MSM and Democrats can find or fake, but they will have to spread their efforts considerably, if they don't know who they have to hit until two months before the election.

[Checkers]

Good post.

I agree with your analysis.

[nmh]

If Fred is still running in my state I will vote for him. If he’s dropped out, it will be Mitt.

[CharlesWayneCT]

It is an elimination round in which at least one and possibly two of the would-be nominees will be sent to the sidelines

If nobody is pulling out now, I fear nobodt will pull out after Florida either. I fear nobody will EVER pull out.

[CharlesWayneCT]

Probably after Romney is elected President, because then there won’t be a reason for Hugh to write them any more.

[CharlesWayneCT]

He’s from Michigan.

[humblegunner]

So it looks like Mitt for me.

I don't know if I'd be comfortable with a Mormon president.

[CharlesWayneCT]

We will nominate a conservative, and we will WIN in November.

I’ll give you a week to get over the pain of the past few days, but then we are going to drop the negative stuff, and put the plan into action to win the White House.

Two or Three Supreme Court justices lie in the balance. We will NOT lay down and cry simply because the first choice of the movement can’t win the votes.

[commish]

Here is a chart of Candidate results so far :

         IO  WY  NH  MI  NV  SC  Ave
Romney    2   1   2   1   1   4  1.83
McCain    4   6   1   2   3   1  2.83
Huck      1   5   3   3   4   2  3.00
Fred      3   2   6   5   5   3  4.00
Paul      5   7   5   4   2   5  4.67
Rudy      6   4   4   6   6   6  5.33