Did you ever notice that those same polls that the Rudy boosters like to cite keep showing Newt in either second or third place with 15-20%. For a "fantasy" who's not running he seems to be on a lot of Republican voters minds.
1) He has name recognition
2) Thus, he's a placeholder for everyone unhappy with Giuliani/Romney/McCain who doesn't know the other candidates. And that's MOST people, becuase, again, FR is not the Republican Party.
3) Whatever gains Hunter or Brownback or Tancredo eventually make, therefore, will come out of Newt's support.
4) The "Fantasy" I'm referring to is Newt winning a general election against any Bipedal Hominid the Democrats run. Newt has demonstrated electability in one fairly conservative Congressional district in Georgia, NOBODY wants a president named "Newt", people don't want to see Newt's face on TV or behind Presidential podiums, and much of the country either hates Newt or thinks he's a has-been joke.
And once again, though I hate having to point this out over and over, I don't understand how people cannot distinguish their personal opinion of a candidate from their opinion of how the great mass of other voters think about a candidate - you have to at least know or be able to understand the views of other people to understand what a hopeless candidate Newt is.
1) Guiliani has equal/greater name recognition than Gingrich.
2) Thus he's benefitting from a temporary case of the well known/unknown syndrome. He has name recognition, but as his views on issues of importance to conservative voters become known his support will diminish and redirect to the leading conservative candidate.
3) Whatever gains Newt, Hunter, Brownback, et al, make will come out of Giuliani's support.
4) Giuliani has demonstrated electability for a local office in one of most liberal cities in the country. Hillary has demonstrated electability in arguably the most liberal state in the country. All of your other characterizations of Gingrich are nothing more that your own biases.
I know it must be a great burden for you to bless us with your great wisdom over and over, so please, give it a rest. Once again it's nothing more than a projection of your own opinions onto the great unwashed masses. We'll all manage to figure things out on our own.