Posted on 05/01/2007 5:08:49 AM PDT by areafiftyone
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani remains on top in the race for the GOP nomination and now enjoys support from 30% of Likely Voters. That’s more than twice the total of any other candidate. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson and Arizona Senator John McCain are tied for second at 14%.
Thompson has been in the 12% to 14% range for each of the five surveys since his name was floated as a possible candidate.
McCain, once considered the dominant frontrunner, has struggled in recent months. His support among Likely GOP Primary voters has fallen eight percentage points since January. His numbers now are strongest among independents likely to vote in a Republican Primary. In Election 2000, McCain did best in open primaries that allowed independents to vote. Then Governor Bush did best in Primary states where only Republicans could vote.
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney remains the only other candidate in double digits. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich remains in fifth place with 8% support.
Giuliani is the most popular candidate in either party—62% now have a favorable opinion of him. McCain’s favorability ratings among all voters have also fallen to the lowest level yet measured--49%. Thompson and Romney are less well known, viewed favorably by 35% and 32% respectively. See updated favorability ratings and general election match-ups for all Republican and Democratic candidates.
Among all voters, 44% now see John McCain as politically conservative. That’s a significant increase from 26% in December. What’s truly unusual about perceptions of the Arizona Senator is how consistent they are across party lines. Forty-four percent (44%) of Republicans view him as politically conservative. That view is shared by 45% of Democrats and 43% of those not affiliated with either major party.
Giuliani is seen as politically moderate by 49% of all voters. Twenty-eight percent (28%) see him as politically conservative. By a 68% to 19% margin, Republicans see Giuliani as politically moderate. Democrats are more evenly divided. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of those in Nancy Pelosi’s party see the Republican frontrunner as politically conservative while 36% say he’s politically moderate. Among those not affiliated with either major party, 47% see Giuliani as a moderate while 24% say conservative.
Thompson is less well known. Among all voters, 32% see the actor and former Senator as politically conservative. Twenty-five percent (25%) say he’s politically moderate while 6% say liberal. A plurality, 37%, don’t know enough to have an opinion. Among Republicans, 37% see Thompson as a conservative while 27% say moderate.
While Giuliani retains a sizable lead, the latest polling in the Democratic race shows that New York Senator Hillary Clinton has lost her lead to Illinois Senator Barack Obama.
Democrats currently have public support on their side for the most significant issue of the day—Iraq. Most Americans favor either bringing all troops home from Iraq immediately or establishing a firm timetable for their withdrawal. Most also oppose a Presidential veto of the Iraq funding bill passed by Congress to establish a timetable.
Rasmussen Reports releases updated polling data on the Republican nominating contest every Tuesday. Results for the Democrats are updated on Mondays. The current survey is based upon national telephone interviews with 602 Likely Republican Primary Voters conducted April 23-26, 2007. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence.
We have a winner!!
SHHHHH!!! be berry berry quiet! ;-)
That's a great post - I laughed out loud. Well done.
All the Giuliani in drag pics circulating around seems to have worked in his favor. He now has the drag queen vote, plus all the closet queens out there. There must be more of them than anyone imagined...
I don’t get it.
I hope none of our other Republican candidates prostrate themselves in such a way.
But I suppose they will.
BTW, I put Time Russert (D), NBC, in the same category.
Those photos don’t mean a thing. Everyone in the U.S. who’ve seen it remembers when Rudy did that and why he did it. For a charity event. People don’t have any problems with joking around for a charity event if its to raise money for a good cause.
They will all do it. Every candidate will go on Oprah (remember George Bush and Al Gore?) Also, Saturday Night live, Jay Leno and Letterman. They all will do it. I guarantee it. McCain just happens to be the first that’s all.
I know, I know, but it turns my stomach when they appear with those who work daily to smear and slander them, their President, and the war effort.
I just could not do it, never.
If it is Rudy versus Barack in the general election, I predict you will see a landslide win that will set a new election record. Will Barack win any states?
Just out of curiosity, are you a man or a woman?
Just out of curiosity, are you a man or a woman?
But you wait. Wait until the people find out he kills babies, hates ferrets, kisses gays, will take your gun away, and dodged the draft. Then he’ll drop like a rock in the polls. Well if having more than twice the support than your closest rival in a Rasmussen poll is a drop, I’ll take it. :-)
a 62% favorability rating is nothign to sneeze at
as Kenny Banyon from Seinfeld used to say “That’s Gold Jerry!”
good stuff here
Election 2008
Republican Candidates Running in 2008 Presidential Election
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Political%20Tracking/Favorables/RepublicanPresidentialCandidates.htm
WOW! Good stuff. I wish I could post that!
MD, IL,
Interesting lesson. Surely nobody in the race is as well-known as John McCain. He ran for President in 2000, he’s on the news once or twice a week, he’s known as a maverick, he’s on letterman, leno, comedy central.
If there was any candidate for which the claim “everybody knows exactly what he is and what he stands for” was true, it would be McCain.
So for those of you who argue Rudy is already well-known, people understand his positions, that there is no downside for him now, just look at the Rasmussen poll numbers for McCain.
The “electorate” perception of him as “conservative” has gone up by double-digits in 3 months. Whoa, how did so many “likely Republcian Primary Voters” suddenly learn he was a conservative? They didn’t know him already?
Also, his favorability ratings dropped like a rock in the last couple of weeks. What, people didn’t already know he supported the war, Republican Likely Primary Voters are actually learning something about McCain they don’t like? How could that be?
So don’t tell me that Rudy is so well-known that his positions are already reflected in the poll numbers. McCain was just taken out in a week by a simple media blitz about his “conservative positions”.
The Media would have a field day with Rudy, whenever they wanted to. If the media tomorrow decided to tell the public that Rudy was NOT a hero of 9/11, but was rather a person to be loathed, his numbers would drop like a rock, because people don’t have any reason for their support for him other than “The Media Told Us He’s Lovable”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.