Public: Guiliani has best chance of defeating Clinton

Gallup News Service ^ | 11/2/07 | Joseph Carroll

[jamese777]

PRINCETON, NJ -- The vast majority of Americans say former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has an excellent or good chance both of being elected president and of defeating Hillary Clinton in the November 2008 general election if Clinton is the Democratic presidential candidate. None of the other leading Republican candidates comes close to Giuliani on either measure. Americans give Giuliani, Arizona Sen. John McCain, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney slightly better chances of “being elected president” than of “defeating Hillary Clinton.”

Giuliani also has an advantage in perceived electability over the rest of the Republican field in a series of head-to-head electability comparisons against McCain, Romney, and former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson. Giuliani has at least a 40-point electability advantage in each of these comparisons.

Democrats, independents, and Republicans all rate Giuliani as the GOP’s best bet in 2008.

Electability of Republican Candidates

The Oct. 25-28, 2007, Gallup Panel survey asked Americans two questions about the chances of six Republican candidates winning the presidency in November 2008. Half of the respondents were asked about the candidates' chances "of being elected president in November 2008." The other half were asked about the candidates' chances of "defeating Hillary Clinton for president in November 2008 if she is the Democratic candidate."

Giuliani is the only candidate that a majority of Americans say has an excellent or good chance of “being elected president” in 2008. McCain (47%) and Romney (45%) fall just below the majority level on this measure. Only 31% of Americans view Thompson, who has consistently placed second in national Republican nomination preference polls, as having an excellent or good chance of being elected. The public does not give dark-horse candidates Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul good odds.

[hiredhand]

Not to "get into it" with anybody....because I've been strongly criticized for this already. But I'll vote for my neighbor's dog before I vote for Rudy Guiliani. I won't vote for him (or any other RINO), but I won't vote for Hillary either. People such as myself will cause enough of an imbalance to toss the election her (Hillary's) way.

I've been warning people of this for months. But the prevailing attitude is that "anybody else" is better than Hillary, and that my attitude is everything from dangerous to seditious. We don't believe this though, even though we won't stoop to voting for Hillary.

A year is a fairly long time, and things can change though. We'll just have to see what pans out.

[hiredhand]

If Rudy is nominated, on that day the RNC will have forfeited the election to their competitor. They should pay attention to those trying to tell them this instead of sticking their heads in holes and ignoring everything going on around them. The RNC lives in a dream world.

[italianquaker]

You might be right but they screwed Pombo in 2006, so anything can and will happen

[ASA Vet]

We still have lots of those RinoRudy Bots here on FR.
But many fewer than before Feb.

[captnorb]

You got that right.

[Howie66]

“Attrition” can be a good thing! :-)

[Fishrrman]

Eventhough I will vote for any Republican nominee against Hillary, and I urge others to do so, it is true that when a moderate/Liberal Republican goes up against a moderate/liberal democrat, the moderate/liberal democrat always wins (e.g 1948, 1976,1992, and 1996).

1968: Nixon v. Humphrey
1972: Nixon v. McGovern
1988: G. Bush (the elder) v. Dukakis

Nixon - who presided over the creation of the EPA and who instituted wage and price controls, could _hardly_ be called a conservative president. He _may_ have been conservative in his younger days, but by the time he reached the oval office, he was the epitome of a "moderate Republican".

And how "conservative" was "read my lips" George the 1st?

Your theory does not hold water.

- John

[hiredhand]

For over four years our SOLE communication with the GOP was “SECURE THE BORDERS!”. For four years, they sent us solicitations for donations, and called us. Our response never changed.

This culminated with that amnesty debacle. At this, we jammed legislative switchboards in D.C., flooded e-mail systems, and ran their fax machines out of paper. We pressured enough Senators to stop the bill from passing.

But what was the response? The response was the President’s scorching rebuttal to us a day later. Did you see it? I was amazed. I felt like he was talking to me personally! He was obviously angry at us! We logically thought that since we had managed to exert enough pressure, that he would be the man we voted for and do what was voiced by us.

But instead, a few days later he went to our enemy, Harry Reid and asked him to resurrect the bill. THIS is what split the GOP.

The reason this is dangerous is because there is now a large base of now former GOP voters who wouldn’t vote for “Rudy McRomney” if it meant life or death. We’re just some of those people. We’re going to vote for Duncan Hunter, Tom Tancredo, Fred Thompson, or Ron Paul. But collectively, we’ll have no strength because these men are all some very good picks! They will divide our vote! Some are better than others, but they’re all preferred over the current GOP front runners, and certainly the DNC picks.

But if the GOP doesn’t nominate somebody like Duncan Hunter or one of those mentioned above, this election is OVER. We’ll be too divided as a conservative base to have any effect in the outcome. The result will be that Hillary Rodham Clinton will become the 44the President of the United States of America.

We won’t vote for a “second best” again. We won’t vote for a “Rudy McRomney” just to keep Hillary from winning the Presidency. But there are masses of cowards out there who will support the GOP come hell or high water, and they will. Of course they’ll blame people like us for voting for a good man such as Duncan Hunter as Hillary is being sworn into office and we’re all lamenting it. But it won’t change the fact that we did what was right, and correct and they did NOT.

We don't fear this, although we're not looking forward to it either. But those who vote for second best only to prevent Hillary from winning the election are driven by fear and deserve nothing of what they hope for. Theirs will be a "cowards reward". We're not driven by fear, nor do we fear those who will predictably bring what will come.

[TLI]

The vast majority of Americans say former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani has an excellent or good chance both of being elected president and of defeating Hillary Clinton in the November 2008 general election if Clinton is the Democratic presidential candidate.

Right. Ahhh, yea.

Perhaps there are two Rudys? `Cause the Rudy I know about has a few itsy-bitsy flaws that just MAYBE could be a problem...

First there is the protector of our constitutional rights Rudy,


Second, there is the "Conservative Values" Rudy,


Third, there is the "Family Values" Rudy


Then of course there is the "Safe for Republicans Rudy"

But we all know that the fair and balanced opponent from across the isle would NEVER exploit a couple of minor character flaws, she will campaign strictly on the issues, right?




Or, could it be that the power mad, crazed nutjob will gleefully chew up little roooty-toot and spit him out like old bubblegum?

[airborne]

The same public who doesn’t know that Rudy is pro abortion?

Sheeple.

[word_warrior_bob]

Can we see those polls of who had the best chance of defeating Carter in 80?

[Liberty2007]

its kinda like saying Liberal-lite has best chance of betting liberal, we still lose.

[ClarenceThomasfan]

This is good news for the GOP as well as Guiliani. At least the public thinks that the GOP will probably win next year.

[mainerforglobalwarming]

I agree. And unfortunately right now enough people on our side are buying the makeover to give him leads in NH Iowa, and SC. Tommorrow had better be a great day for Fred. He’s needs to build momentum and chance the dynamics of the race fast.

[balch3]

nominate a real conservative and he’ll win in a landslide.

[ex-snook]

Giuliani couldn’t even be elected Mayor again.

[G Larry]

Rudi won’t win anything when half of the Pro-Lifer’s stay home!

[Clintonfatigued]

Given how important it is to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House, this is something that should be factored by conservatives, even though they don’t agree with everything that Giuliani believes in.

[Perdogg]

But in those three cases, the republican ran as a conservative and won.

[roamer_1]

Given how important it is to keep Hillary Clinton out of the White House, this is something that should be factored by conservatives, even though they don’t agree with everything that Giuliani believes in.

There is no "factoring" to be done. If you want my vote, give me a candidate to vote FOR.