Colin Powell's poll and approval ratings are the highest of any public official in the US. And yes, that does matter, as we saw in 2004 - Bush retaining an approval rating above 50% was an essential measure of whether he was going to win.
My opinion on his abortion stance is the same as it is with Rudy - I may not agree with it, but if elected president, neither man would advance the pro-choice position - we'd continue with whatever the status quo was on 1/20/2009. Could you say the same about Hillary?
That's the choice in 2008 regarding abortion (and 2nd A also really) - status quo, or Hillary's agenda. There is no Ronald Reagan warming up in the bullpen for us.
Gee, that's nice?
Again...tell me what his positions are on any policy matter of consequence. C'mon, this shouldn't be that hard for you to cough up.
Ye of little faith...how do we know at this early stage that there is no Ronald Reagan warming up in the bullpen? There are a number of fine GOP Governors (Pawlenty, Sanford, Barbour) and Senators (Brownback, Allen, Graham) who with a little more seasoning could be outstanding candidates four years from now. Now I'm not saying that any one of these candidates is the next Ronald Reagan. What I am saying is that over the next four years, for the first time in recent GOP history, we are going to have a wide open, contested nomination. There will undoubtedly be many voices heard from all corners of our party. Let's resist the temptation to jump on these early public opinion polls before this process has a chance to play out. One thing we can be assured of is that the eventual GOP candidate will emerge from this process with a solid 45% or more of public support and enough resources to be very competitive in the next election.