Giuliani Most Favorably Viewed of Possible 2008 Candidates
Another Warm And Fuzzy Poll
By California Yankee Posted in Archived — Comments (16) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »
Gallup reports Rudy Giuliani is the most positively viewed of a group of 11 possible 2008 presidential candidates. Seventy-seven percent of Americans hold a favorable view of former New York mayor:
A majority of Americans also have positive views of Condoleezza Rice, John Edwards, John McCain, and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Barack Obama is viewed favorably by those who are familiar with him, but remains unknown to about half the public. The public has mixed views of John Kerry, Al Gore, and Newt Gingrich, and is not familiar with Mitt Romney or Sam Brownback. An update on Republicans' and Democrats' preferences for their respective party's 2008 presidential nominees shows few changes, with Giuliani and McCain tied atop the Republican list and Clinton with a significant lead over Obama and the rest of the Democratic field.
Giuliani easily outdistances all Republican and Democratic contenders in terms of his overall favorability ratings.
Read on...
Edwards, McCain, and Clinton all have favorabilty ratings above 50%. Clinton's unfavorables are roughly twice those of Edwards and McCain. Gore (45%), Kerry (45%), and Gingrich (42%) also have high unfavorable ratings.
Obama's rating are more positive (42%) than negative (11%), but 47% are not familiar enough with Obama to rate him. Sixty-nine percent cannot provide a rating of Romney. Those who can rate Romney are more positive (19%) than negative (12%).
Gallup's assessment isn't much different than the findings of Quinnipiac University's warm and fuzzy poll. In Quinnipiac's "thermometer reading," taken the week after the November 7 election, Giuliani, McCain, and Obama came out on top.
It's much too early for presidential beauty contests to be meaningful. I doubt Giuliani will maintain his high favorabilty ratings once the voters become fully engaged.
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Giuliani Most Favorably Viewed of Possible 2008 Candidates 16 Comments (0 topical, 16 editorial, 0 hidden) Post a comment »
Since 2001, Rudy Giuliani has neither run for office, nor held any public office. He has not been under constant public and press scrutiny as public officials are.
As a private citizen who only comes out to make an occasional speech, it's easy to be all things to all men, and be loved by most.
Likewise I would expect Edwards to start going up, since he only served one term in the Senate and has been out of office for a while now.
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Run like Reagan!
Philosophically, McCain and Giuliani definitely are not conservatives (No, don't talk to me about McCain's voting record being with conservatives 80% of the time or whatever. You don't have to be conservative to vote with conservatives. Just ask Ron Paul).
Romney? He's put up so much of a smoke screen, nobody can tell what's what.
Brownback? It's possible, but I don't know enough about him to say.
Huckabee? The tax hiking, obesity fighting pragmatic governor? Come on.
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Run like Reagan!
I like Rudy alot too, that doesn't mean I will vote for him for President (I could in the right situation).
I like Rudy, but to get nominated I think he needs to adapt to the Republican Right on at least one important issue: immigration. Maybe he could say that whatever the immigration law is as of 2008, as President he would actually enforce it. Since he was Mr. Law Enforcement in NYC he might gain some credibility on this issue.
As Neil points out above, he hasn't been in office for many years and is more a name brand than anything else. Nonetheless, he has it up on such non-entities as Huckabee, Brownback, and Hagel, and unlike those three I could hold nose and vote for the mayor--with whom I disagree on some immigration issues, gun control, and to a lesser extent gay marriage by judicial fiat (no problem with state legislatures who embrace the concept).
We really need to think out of the box (cliche apology now), and Rudy or someone like him with no association with the Congress, Senate and particularly this White House is the path to victory.
Imagine if Bush stepped off the scene after 9-11 when his approval rating was like 90%. Rudy is milking an image. He has done nothing to warrant such high numbers. My biggest fear is that the media will adopt him like a little puppy for being the "moderate voice", the "reasonable voice", the "courageous maverick" and the people will be even more confused. As is true any time a Republican eats his own party's platform. He is automatically vaulted into the vanguard by the MSM.
Guess you didn't spend much time in NYC pre-Rudy.
Rant Street! www.rant.st
NYC is such a fever swamp of the left a liberal Dem looks like a Republican to people who live there. Hence Guiliani and Bloomberg.
While it is true that I would vote for Guiliani before I'd vote for McCain, but then I'm likely to be voting with my rifle and sidearm before I vote for Guiliani.
I don't live there, just visit from time to time and I do believe Rudy accomplished amazing things with transforming it, especially regarding crime. And didn't he cut taxes and make city services work more efficiently as well?
I'd be interested to hear from someone who lived in NY under Koch/Dinkins and Guiliani on the comparison, maybe I'm overstating it.
tbaugh
I think it would help with many (at least some) conservatives if Giuliani would had some point say (and believe!) that whatever his personal views as to abortion, he believes Roe wrongly decided as the matter is one to be decided by legislatures and not courts.
I don't think we can take these very seriously if Hillary is over 50%. That just cannot be!
I find her unbelievably unlikable almost on par with John Kerry and possibly less likable than Gore. She comes off as a phony robotic liberal hack.
Her husband, I have to concede was a generally likable guy (at least for a narcissistic scumbag). And Obama, as much as I know he has the record of a committed lefty, is an extremely likeable guy.
I have a hard time believing that 50%+ of the country doesn't share my view about her- guess I'm out of touch.
That the dems seem to be trumpeting Obama and no one has heard of the guy.
Or that even more people have heard of him than Romney.
That the guy that leads the list (Rudy) is the most liberal of the GOP bunch.
That the guy (I think I can call Hillary a guy toungue in cheek) leading the dem's pack has such high unfavorabilities.
Bottom line for me reading the poll: One thing that makes such early polling silly is that the political junkies (read primary voters) know more than the pool of people polled. For example, more people buy into the dem fantasy of a political neophyte (Obama) than can name a GOP governor in a blue state (Romney).
Meaningless, yes. But fun. Also a glimpse into the thoughts of the masses who can't name one SCOTUS justice, the Sec of State, nor one of their own senators.
Looking at the list I can't imagine that either party is thrilled about their frontrunners.
"Greater is an army of sheep led by a lion, than an army of lions led by a sheep" - Defoe