The evidence, in Giuliani's increasing support, contradicts you.
"The evidence, in Giuliani's increasing support, contradicts you."
You mean the increasing support that exists only in you and the other Rudymites own minds? Sorry if that is unconvicing.
And spare me the worthless early all-in-the-name polling data. It's really weak considering Kerry was at 4% a month before the first Iowa caucus.
The people your refer to as shrill and self-marginalizing, the Rudy opponents on Free Republic, are in the 85% majority here.
The dignified and imminently reasonable Rudy-backers (like the guy on this thread who wants all Rudy opponents ex-communicated from his party) account for 15%.
"Increasing support" is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.
Of course, he is leading in the nation polls, where nearly sixty percent of his own party doesn't know anything about him (see poll at the top of this thread), but that doesn't exactly make the case that Rudy's supporters are effectively persuading anyone. It suggests that nobody knows anything, because nobody's started campaigning yet.
It also suggests that when Republicans know fully what Giuliani stands for, as they do in large numbers here, they have a very hard time supporting him.
There is unfortunately NO conservative candidate that can win. So, I'll take the anti-Democrat vote and go with the front-runner, Rudy. If Mitt vaults ahead of Rudy, I'll go with Mitt. If Duncan leap frogs ahead, I'll not only vote for Duncan but work on his campaign.
We must MUST win against the slide to socialism. If we cannot win with conservative values outright, then we must stall the slide as best we can. We cannot stall the slide if we don't win.