Free Republic

In what might be an early indication of the nation's thinking on the next Republican presidential nominee, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani won a straw poll Saturday night with 233 votes at the Summit County party's annual Lincoln Day Dinner in downtown Akron. Giuliani's total was 31 percent of the 752 votes cast in the straw poll. Finishing second with 194 votes, or 26 percent, was U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona. Former U.S. Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee was a distant third with 91 votes. Rounding out the top five, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was fourth with...

Romney wins narrowly while Rudy Giuliani (a client) finishes a strong second: Romney 21% Giuliani 17% Brownback 15% Gingrich 14% McCain 12% On combined first and second place choices, it's a win for Rudy: Giuliani 34% Gingrich 30% Romney 30% That's not too shabby. Romney's people spent thousands of dollars getting their folks to CPAC. It seemed like every other person in line for Romney's speech yesterday had an official Mitt t-shirt on -- and he certainly was being attacked as though he was the man to beat. Even so, Rudy manages to pull off a near-win by just showing...

Rudy Building Lead Over McCain... [Rich Lowry] ...according to the new Fox News Poll. Asked who would they support in a Republican primary if the choices were McCain or Giuliani, 56% of Republicans said Giuliani, and 31% said McCain. 50% of Independents said Giuliani, and 27% said McCain. This represents a big bump for Giuliani since early December. Then, 42% of Republicans said they would pick Giuliani, 40% McCain, and 35% of Independents said they would support Giuliani while 41% said they would go with McCain. 02/15 05:34 PM