Free Republic

If The Donald needed a bit of an ego boost heading into tonight’s debate (okay… I choked a bit typing that phrase) he got one from Monmouth last night. Though he was already pretty much crushing the field nationally and in all the states except possibly Iowa, the pollsters recorded Trump breaking the 40% barrier for the first time in that survey and threatening to hit the “Game Over” benchmark of 50. (Politico) Donald Trump just got a little more vault in his ceiling. Nationwide, the polling-obsessed Manhattan multi-billionaire and leading Republican presidential candidate broke into the 40s on Monday.According...

"When was the last time Republicans nominated a pro-abortion, pro-gay rights Northeasterner with an iffy record on taxes and spending?" asked Nelson Warfield, an aide to Bob Dole's failed 1996 Republican presidential campaign. "That's the hurdle (Giuliani) faces." Yet Rudy leads in all advance polling. Rudy Giuliani has advocated restriction of the right of a citizen to bear arms. In order to explain and confront any opposition on the right, Rudy has courted Sean Hannity, a conservative talk show host. The courteous treatment of Mr. Giuliani by Mr. Hannity cannot be underestimated, Sean is usually a scrapper, yet he gives...

Not since Teddy Roosevelt took on Tammany Hall a century ago has a New York politician closely linked to urban reform looked like presidential timber. But today ex–New York mayor Rudy Giuliani sits at or near the top of virtually every poll of potential 2008 presidential candidates. Already, Giuliani’s popularity has set off a “stop Rudy” movement among cultural conservatives, who object to his three marriages and his support for abortion rights, gay unions, and curbs on gun ownership. Some social conservatives even dismiss his achievement in reviving New York before 9/11. An August story on the website Right Wing...

Candidates driving home a few differences EACH HOPES RETOOLED IMAGE WILL SWAY VOTERS By Ryan Alessi HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU When voters in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District go to the polls in less than 10 days, among other things, they'll be judging competing makeovers. Democrat Ben Chandler, stung by a 10-point loss in last fall's governor's race, has been reinventing his image ever since. Republican Alice Forgy Kerr, a low-profile state lawmaker from Lexington, has been equally busy trying to craft an image for strangers scattered across 16 Central Kentucky counties. And both are having their problems--- complicated in no small...