Free Republic

Last week, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain both gained support in the race for the GOP nomination. This week, the top four contenders all lost ground. But, through it all, Giuliani remains on top with a double digit lead.The latest Rasmussen Reports national poll shows Giuliani with 28%, thirteen points more than McCain’s total of 15%. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson remains undeclared but in third place with 12% support. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney remains slightly behind Thompson at 10%. The stability in the GOP competition stands in stark contrast to...

Poll: White Conservatives Favor Giuliani Post Chronicle - 9 hours ago April 23, 2007 Despite his liberal leanings, Republican Rudolph Giuliani is the choice for US president among white conservative Christians, a Los Angeles Times poll says. ...

With former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani consistently leading early polls for the Republican presidential nomination, pundits have spilled an ocean of ink concerning his electability. Having recently sat down with the man, let me tell you why I consider Giuliani a candidate wholly appropriate for our times. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking and writing about globalization and security, I was brought in recently by the Giuliani campaign to discuss these topics with the mayor. This is standard practice as presidential candidates gear up, and Giuliani’s camp is the fourth I’ve visited in the last...

As the violence in Iraq continues despite greater troop presence, Democratic strategists see Republican candidates facing an increasingly daunting task of keeping the White House after 2008. Most vulnerable, insiders say, is John McCain, the staunchest supporter of the war among GOP candidates. Once seen as the inevitable GOP nominee, his campaign is faltering badly. While plenty believe he'll turn his luck around--his campaign staff is stocked with former Bush campaign people--others see it as nearly finished. "The general feeling around town is that McCain is done," says a strategist with a top Democratic consulting firm. "And if any Republican...

Judging by the cranky feedback, supporters of Rudy Giuliani's bid for the Republican presidential nomination did not like my column last week. To sum up, I argued that Giuliani was pro-abortion and therefore did not deserve support from conservatives. Rudy backers offered three comebacks. Some simply chose to ignore his shameful pro-abortion record. Others proclaimed that abortion was just one issue and Rudy is a conservative on most others, especially fiscal issues. Finally, another group decided that his policy positions really don't matter because Rudy is the only guy who can beat Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton. Since we dealt with...

Rudolph Giuliani’s lead over his Republican presidential rivals has dropped, according to a new poll – which also showed ominous results for second-place GOP candidate John McCain. A late-February Washington Post-ABC News poll gave former New York City Mayor Giuliani 44 percent of the vote among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents. In the new Post-ABC poll, that number has dropped to 33 percent, while Sen. McCain held steady at 21 percent. Giuliani’s drop could be attributed in part to the possible entry of former Sen. Fred Thompson into the race, according to the Post. Thompson ran third in the new poll,...

Rudy is the new straight talker. No doubt about it. From the NY Post: Giuliani made his sharpest case for moving beyond social issues this weekend in Iowa, telling The Des Moines Register, “Our party is going to grow, and we are going to win in 2008 if we are a party characterized by what we’re for, not if we’re a party that’s known for what we’re against.” Asked about abortion, he said, “Our party has to get beyond issues like that.” The GOP and the modern conservative movement have always prided themselves on being the idea people. Rudy wants...

Rudy Giuliani would make a superb president. he combines Reaganesque vision with extraordinary attention to detail. He is strong on national security and also has the principles and policies to strengthen the economy. He is a tax cutter and a foe of the federal income tax's complexity. He is a fervent free trader, much needed, as global protectionist pressures are rising. He has also demonstrated an antipathy toward unnecessary regulation. If Sarbanes-Oxley hasn't been amended by the time Giuliani takes office, he will push hard to remove its counterproductive elements. While I disagree with him in certain areas--I am pro-life,...

Rudy must be stopped By Joseph Farah In case you hadn't noticed, Rudy Giuliani is leading all the polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. This is scary to me.Given the likelihood of Hillary Clinton winning the Democratic nomination, Americans like me would have no choice. We'd be completely disfranchised from the presidential election. We would be morally prevented from voting for either major party candidate. The good news is there's still time to stop Rudy. My objections to Rudy are hardly confined to the issue of abortion. In fact, besides our shared passion for the New York...

The conventional wisdom about presidential nomination campaigns is almost always wrong. And the pundits' dismissal of former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani's bid for the Republican nomination will not improve their batting average. Even though Giuliani is way ahead of everybody in early primary polls, the experts are already writing Giuliani's obituary. Some of this spin is wishful thinking by Democrats who don't want to face him in the general election. Other than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), he is better known and more popular than anyone running for president, even Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). And Giuliani has a...

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Senator John McCain both gained support this week in the race for the GOP nomination. Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney held steady and remain the only other Republicans earning double digit support.The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of the Republican Presidential Primary competition finds Giuliani at 33%, fourteen points ahead of McCain’s 19%. Thompson is still in third at 13% slightly ahead of Romney at 11%. For Giuliani, that’s his highest level of support in three weeks. It’s McCain’s best showing since early...

....Rudy Giuliani will speak tomorrow at the university founded by televangelist Pat Robertson, a major appearance for the former mayor...who holds liberal social views....Giuliani made his sharpest case for moving beyond social issues this weekend in Iowa, telling The Des Moines Register, "Our party is going to grow, and we are going to win in 2008 if we are a party characterized by what we're for, not if we're a party that's known for what we're against." Asked about abortion, he said, "Our party has to get beyond issues like that." Giuliani upset conservatives - and surprised supporters - by...

The National Journal asked its group of political insiders which potential candidates, if any, will emerge as a strong contender for president. The Democrats gave the following responses: Fred Thompson: 46% * Al Gore: 24% Newt Gingrich: 12% Michael Bloomberg: 11% Chuck Hagel: 8% None of the above: 29% On the Republican side: Fred Thompson: 43% Al Gore: 21% Newt Gingrich: 15% Michael Bloomberg: 11% Chuck Hagel: 4% None of the above: 35% *Insiders were allowed to vote for more than one person, so percentages add up to more than 100.

We can't post from the Des Moines Register so you can read the story here: Giuliani says GOP must focus on terror, taxes

>Giuliani Campaign Announces First Quarter FinancialsThe Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee announced today a strong fundraising showing with a total of $11.9 million cash on hand – $10.8 million for the primary and $1.13 million for the general. The campaign reported total receipts of $16.6 million for the quarter and over $18 million for the cycle, including $14.7 million raised for the first quarter of the year and $1.85 million transferred from Friends of Giuliani. $13.6 million of the total first quarter contributions is in primary dollars. The campaign’s growing momentum is evident in the $11.4 million raised in the month...

REPUBLICAN DATA Giuliani 29%, Thompson 15%, McCain 12%, Romney 8%, Gingrich 8%. Others or none of the above, 28%. Giuliani beats Clinton by 6, 48-42; McCain loses by 3, 42-45. Both lose to Obama (42-46 and 40-48, respectively). 61% of GOP wants to move beyond Bush's policies; only 30% wish to continue (immigration, war, etc?) Sample size was small: only 437 probable Republican primary voters. Article falsely claims, "When the survey reduced the field to three candidates, Giuliani's lead was more decisive: He drew 48% to McCain's 25% and Romney's 20%." In fact, this is only an artifice of having...

A new Republican presidential poll shows former mayor beating McCain; Clinton tops the Democratic roster WASHINGTON - Rudolph Giuliani navigated the first choppy waters of his campaign to sit atop a new Republican presidential poll yesterday that shows him easily beating one-time front-runner John McCain, the Arizona senator who tumbled to third place over Iraq. But the Los Angeles Times-Bloomberg poll also suggests conservative skeptics are still casting about for an alternative to the moderate Giuliani, with a second-place showing by someone who isn't even in the race - actor and former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson. On the Democratic side,...

Senator Obama joked with David Letterman, "I think it is possible that in that kind of situation, we might have to have a brokered convention and, Dave, we might turn to you." It's a stupid joke, but it may reveal that the prospect of a brokered convention is already on candidates' minds. And it already seems likely to some, due to a complete breakdown of the primary system. The Wall Street Journal's Brian Carney says, "The presidential primary system as we have known it for 35 years is dead. History books will record that the era that began with the...

Rudy Giuliani has a lot to learn about campaigning outside of New York City. The former New York mayor attended a roundtable discussion with heavy-hitters at the Oklahoma History Center in Oklahoma City recently. Two of the three co-hosts were natural gas billionaires who are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. “Mayor Giuliani was doing fine until one CEO asked him what his energy policy was,” a participant said. “He gave a very detailed and lengthy answer covering every energy source imaginable, but he never once uttered the words ‘natural gas.’ Considering where he was, who he was talking to, and...

"What they say in Washington is not going to affect the fact that there are terrorists around the world that are planning to come here and kill us," he said in Iowa, in the most spirited part of his newly honed stump speech. Pointing his finger and bouncing up and down on his toes, he declared, "It is something I understand better than anyone else running for president." H said, it is time to eliminate the estate tax and vastly simplify the tax code. But it was the Iraq war and efforts against terrorism on which he was most impassioned....