That much is to be expected this early.
I have seen polls of political insiders that put Allen near the top of the Republican pack.
And things like that give him an immense advantage over other potential candidates with limited name recognition in terms of fundraising and other aspects of a campaign in the primaries.
Either way, all the serious GOP canididates will have fairly high name recognition come 2007.
All this polling shows is that Hillary's "moderate" shtick isn't real. She hasn't made the "moderate" push in the past week so her Liberal numbers are strongly jumping back up. If she were successful in morphing her image she wouldn't need to campaign day after day with her sycophantic press to reinforce the image.
I'm still not on the bandwagon that thinks Hillary's a lock for the Dem nom. It all depends on the base. What concern will trump everything for them. Do they want to win? Are they willing to suck it up and nominate someone that can ride a "moderate" image, or will they demand Michael Moore on the head of the ticket. Hillary is unlikely to go the full on Michael Moore route because it'll resurrect her "vast right wing" conspiracy days and kill her in the general. If they go the "moderate" route with a Liberal in stealth, she has to convince them she can win. She hasn't made that case yet.
For our side McCain thinks high name recognition makes him a sure winner. LOL Uh-uh. The nuMedia can make anyone we want a household name to primary voters, we just haven't decided on a consensus candidate yet..and we don't have to do so yet. We've got time. But, mark words, it'll be someone more reliably conservative then not and that will NOT be McCain. Comments about Cindy aside, Allen is still the favored at this juncture but we'll see who else jumps in the fray to make a showing in the interim. I want whomever our candidate is to have to fight for it.