With all due respect, it's not just the Rudy rooters. How do you explain his front runner status in the various states being polled? There are tens of thousands of Republican voters who are not freepers.
I addressed this yesterday. Rudy may only poll 13% here on FR, and he may even poll 30% within the entire party. Even if he pulls 75% (highly unlikely) of the GOP vote, the remaining 25% or more will NEVER accept him with his liberal stances on abortion, partial birth abortion, gun control, stem cell research, or homosexual agenda. Rudy will not gain the support of the millions of Religious Right voters that GWB benefited from. Those people were mobilized in an extremely well organized effort to win back a majority in the Supreme Court. They have no reason to endorse a gun-grabbing, homosexual-agenda abortionist in 2008.
Going into a general election already outnumbered by Democrats, he would have to pull a huge number of Dem votes. When they are given the choice of a Dem they trust against a Dem who claims to be conserevative (Rudy) why do you think they will vote for? He cannot win.
Polls are tough for me to be confident in. Most are push polls without admitting it.
When people are polled are they simply asked if they are registered republicans? By the NYT's? CNN? Reuters?
How hard is it to say yes and then say, "I like Rudy".