[WildcatClan]

I think I am the blowhard you meant to address, in all fairness those were my words, not Billy’s. I am new to FR and the poll in question has been the only one in my short time as a member. Thanks for the link, but again it would be interesting to see how Freepers would have voted without Newt Gingrich in the poll.

[BillyBoy]

I think it's just ridiculous to claim Tommy Thompson should be excluded because he's not a legit candidate but somehow guys like Ron Paul and Newt (who's a good conservative but has extremely high negatives and is almost certainly not running) are.

However, after the update from Jim Robinson I better understand the limitations of the FR polls and how it's hard to cover all the bases.

And this week's poll is just a retred of the same poll from a few weeks ago.

And bottom line, none of you guys telling us we have to side with "Fred" against "Rudy" will take me up on that bet, because you know deep down inside that the actual primary ballot will probably have other legitimate options. I'd even hold my nose and vote for a backstabber like McCain if I had to stop Rudy from winning.

[BillyBoy]

Perhaps due to the limitations of how many candidates we can include in the weekly FR polls, it might be interesting to start a vaniety thread asking freepers to rank all the Republican candidates in order of preference. This would not only tell us if Fred is #1, but also how liked or disliked Rudy is compared to the rest of the field.

For instance, here’s how I’d rank the candidates in order of preference:

ANNOUNCED CANDIDATES
1) Former Governor Tommy Thompson (R-Wisconsin)
2) Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas)
3) Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-California)
4) Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado)
5) Former Governor Jim Gilmore (R-Virginia)
6) US Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas)
7) Former Governor Mitt Romney (R-Massachusetts)
8) Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas)
9) US Senator John McCain (R-Arizona)
10) Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R-New York)

ANNOUNCED & POTENTIAL CANDIDATES
1) Former Governor Tommy Thompson (R-Wisconsin)
2) Former Governor Mike Huckabee (R-Arkansas)
3) Congressman Duncan Hunter (R-California)
4) Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colorado)
5) Former Governor Jim Gilmore (R-Virginia)
6) Former US Senator Fred Thompson (R-Tennessee)
7) US Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas)
8) Former US House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia)
9) Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas)
10) US Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska)
11) US Senator John McCain (R-Arizona)
12) Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R-New York)
13) Former Governor George Pataki (R-New York)

As you can see, I rank Rudy just about dead last, I’d even vote for McCain over him if I had to. Fred ends up right in the middle of my list, like John Kasish did in 2000. Tommy Thompson is my #1. In the earlier FR poll that included Tommy, it also had several candidates that since that time have said they’re not running (one was Tim Pawlenty, I was on his bandwagon, but have since switched my support to Tommy)

Whether Fred announces or not, I hope conservatives can unite around the goal of ABR (Anyone But Rudy)