According to the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll. Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton are the front runners for their respective parties’ nominations in 2008:
New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D) and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani (R), who briefly competed against each other in a Senate race in 2000, hold early leads over potential rivals for their parties’ 2008 presidential nominations, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.
Clinton has a clear head start over other prospective Democratic candidates, with Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), who only a month ago expressed interest in the 2008 race, running second and former senator John Edwards (N.C.), the party’s 2004 vice presidential nominee, in third.
Giuliani’s advantage in the Republican race appears more tenuous: He holds a narrow lead over Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who nonetheless is far ahead of Giuliani in organizing a presidential campaign. Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who has not disclosed his plans for 2008, is well back in third.
Giuliani enjoys strongly favorable ratings, according to the survey, with two-thirds of Americans giving him positive marks. His leadership after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, earned him widespread praise.
Clinton remains the most polarizing politician among those considering a campaign for president in 2008, but her image has improved perceptibly during her six-year tenure in the Senate
Obviously,? polls like this are far too early to mean anything significant about the final result, but they do show a few interesting things. First of all, as the poll also indicates, John McCain is not the powerhouse the media would have us believe. His popularity among Republicans has been declining steadily over the past few months, and he’s in second place behind a man who has never held a national office of any kind. Second, it shows that the GOP would be foolish to reject Giuliani as a candidate given what clearly seems to be a desire among a large part of the public to see him as President.
Never held a national office of any kind?? Rudy was the third most powerful guy in the DoJ during the Reagan Admin. That’s a pretty big noteworthy national office of some kind.