Bad news for Rudy Giuliani: his lead in the polls is shrinking quite dramatically. The main cause seems to be… (growing) support for Fred Thompson – who still has to announce his candidacy. Where, in February, “44 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents preferred” him for the nomination, “that figure is [now] down to 33 percent.”
McCain, meanwhile, holds steady at 21 percent, Fred Thompson “ran third in this poll, with 9 percent, tying him with former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.”
Romney, in other words, is rising in the polls. To be frank, I find it surprising that his numbers are still, relatively, low. Romney is a terrific CEO, became Republican Governor of a Blue state and handled himself well. He saved the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, which made him popular among quite some people (and gave him experience useful for a presidential candidate, to say the least).
Romney is, in my opinion, a good candidate. Better than most.
Support for him rising, and I am sure that it will continue to rise.
That being said, he has one major problem: 44% said they would definitely not vote for him.
44%.
Considering his resumé on the one hand, and the fact that most people don’t know much about him on the other, leads me to believe that these individuals have a problem with Romney… because of his faith. That, I have to say, is something I find quite appalling. He is a Mormon: so what?
McCain has a major problem as well in this regard: where he was first popular among Republican leaning independents and, yes, even among Democrats, that has now changed: 47 percent of those asked said that they would definitely not vote for him.
This means that McCain is now a more-polarizing figure than Hillary Clinton: 45% of Americans said that they would definitely not vote for her.
Talking about Hillary Clinton: as said, she still – easily – leads the pack in the polls. Her numbers remain the same: 37 percent (against 36% in February) of Democratic voters say they intend to vote for the former First Lady. Barack Obama is falling behind with 20% – down from 24%. Al Gore – who has not announced his candidacy yet – received the support of 17% of Democratic (leaning) voters. John Edwards is in fourth place with 14%.
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