Let’s remember that these Polls are very early. We should see Rudy’s numbers on the national scale. It might be interesting.
Huckabee has a long road to get enough name recognition to knock off both Rudy and McCain.
Here is a good resource for related polls: http://www.pollingreport.com/wh08gen.htm
The numbers are all head to head which is the most realistic and it shows varying results with Rudy doing a little better than McCain and it looks like Romney doing terrible. Please note this page shows dozens of polls and polls for different weeks.
Good point, and one that I hadn’t considered. He’s southern, a governor, and a damned good public speaker. I daresay he’s articulate. Not sure that I think he might win the nomination, but with the field that exists, precious little would surprise me these days.
Just like RTFirefly, I grew up around people like the religious right. I know full well that they’re just like everyone else. All over the damned board. But they’ve been told that they should expect a candidate who is one of them. Despite what you claim about Bush fils, I think that he’s pretty much exactly what the RR is after. Life of debauchery, followed by a come to Jesus moment. Shit, I could give you a ist of names that would choke a pony of people with precisely that same life story. Granted, they weren’t born to scions in Connecticut, but they look at him in a decidedly macro fashion, and he’s a damned clone of one of them. Well, if they didn’t believe that cloning is a bad and evil thing, that is.
But to hell with him, there’s a whole new batch to bash and dissect.
As he told a Spanish reporter upon leaving office, “No tengo futuro”. He knows. Good luck in the lobbying biz, Jebby.
Bah. There hasn’t been a draft since long before the primary system took hold, and under both party’s current rules it’s virtually impossible for the primaries NOT to produce a nominee.
That’s why ‘draft Smith’ movements now take place well before the primaries, with the objective of convincing
Smith to run. That’s why a ‘draft Jeb’ movement, should it occur, would take place this spring and summer, not next year.
Actually, there has been one significant draft since the primary system took hold. That would be in 1980, when Dems unhappy with Carter persuaded Ted Kennedy to run against him.
I think Republicans can forgive his liberal leanings on quite a few issues. But the anti-gun issue is a deal breaker for many republicans, especially in the mid west.
I wouldn’t put much stock in this. We have no idea who these bloggers are or what their particular agendas are. But I wouldn’t be surprised if they represented, as a group, a rather fringe ideology as is often the case with political bloggers.
As for Gingrich, he should be a conservative’s dream candidate, especially if you’re one of the more educated conservatives. And, if you’re willing to forgive his political scandals, which many mainstream voters don’t know enough about other than to have those scandals turn them off to the idea of him as a candidate. And… if you’re thinking completely ideally, not with the sense of “can this guy acutally win in the general”.
But the identities don’t tell us what their agendas are, as I doubt you’ve spent the time looking them all up individually and developing a political profile of them. It’s an unscientific survey, not unlike any internet survey.
Which will be way too late, and he must know it, therefore he’s more likely just to be trying to get his name back in the news. Does he have a book coming out in October, perhaps?
RTF, I was actually think of *convention * drafts of noncampaigning prospects, not uncommon back in the days when those were more than just pep rallies. AFAIK the last time it actually happened was 1940 with Willkie. What you describe is grassroots support the candidate found compelling, and then began to campaign in the primaries.
Not neccesarily. The New Hampshire primary isn’t until the end of January, so that would give him 4 months to set up campaign organization and fundraising, and since Gingrich is already pretty well known, that will be easier for him. So, assuming none of the Republican candidates set the party on fire and that there’s a groundswell of “Draft Newt”, it’s difficult but possible.
The reason that Wilkie was able to get the 1940 nomination, and the reason that the conventions then weren’t just pep rallies, was because then, most states didn’t have binding primaries. In most cases, the state parties just appointed the delegates, so very few delegates were committed at the beginning, so a dark horse candidate could emerge.
A big reason that changed was because of the '68 Democratic convention, and the turmoil behind that. Humphrey managed to get the nomination without entering any primaries.
Nothing wrong with that, but I thought you were responding to where I was talking about drafts. And since I was talking in terms of spring and summer of this year…well, you get the idea.
You’re right about convention drafts, of course. Although the Scranton draft in 1964, while unsuccessful in terms of wresting the nomination from Goldwater, got enough delegates to make it at least mildly interesting.
Thank you for the link. Disturbing article but also contradictory.
This is a paragraph that could come from my mouth. Well except the last sentence. I would never consider putting the woman or her doctor in jail or even fining them. I would just normally advise alternatives if I was asked. That last sentence is a bit scary to me. I would have liked a follow-up question on it.
This is going to be an interesting election cycle. Much more so than the depressing one we had in 2004. I got to choose between Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber. I like Clinton & Obama better than Kerry or Edwards. I still like Rudy and McCain much better than Bush or Dole. I am sure both parties will find bigger rejects to run against each other somehow.
No problem. I knew I read something about the strict constructionism somewhere, but couldn’t find it for the life of me- so I’m glad that article showed up. Sounds like Rudy has gone back and forth on abortion a couple of times.
