Free Republic

Ah jeez: Mike Huckabee has vaulted from nowhere into second place in the Republican presidential race, riding a burst of support from evangelicals, Southerners and conservatives, a poll showed Friday. The upsurge by the former Arkansas governor has come largely at the expense of Fred Thompson, according to the national survey by The Associated Press and Ipsos. Thompson has dropped after failing to galvanize the party's right-wing core as much as some had expected. Rudy Giuliani remains the front-runner, yet while his support long has been steady it shows signs of fraying. Huckabee's growing strength in the South has come...

Today, it looks like the immigration issue is ripping apart the Republican Party. But tomorrow - 2008 - could be a different story. Specifically, it's George W. Bush who is ripping up Republican unity. Reflecting his own rich kid Texas roots - doesn't everyone own a ranch, requiring lots of nonwhite people to do the work? - Bush is determined to bring the benefits of the Tara Plantation lifestyle to more of his fellow millionaires. But what about the middle class, which finds its wages depressed, its culture besieged and its sovereignty challenged? Well, frankly, Bush doesn't give a damn....

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...

With his exploratory committee now prospecting for 2008, former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani leads the GOP’s White House hopefuls. His standing atop numerous polls remains unchallenged. Also, his recent endorsement by some former critics suggests that social conservatives who explore his record might embrace him as president of the United States. Surveys consistently demonstrate that Giuliani, not Arizona Senator John McCain, is this race’s front-runner. It’s not even close. In a nationwide Rasmussen Reports survey of 1,050 Republicans and 203 GOP-leaning independents, 24 percent backed Giuliani while 18 percent chose Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. McCain, at 17 percent,...