The new Pew Poll has some interesting data on the Republican field. Overall, Giuliani’s support shrank from 32% of Republican and “Republican-leaning” voters in April, to 27% in July. Fred Thompson improved from 10% to 18%.
Ryan Sager picks up on one of the most striking aspects of this shift:
The Pew report notes this about the dip in Rudy Giuliani’s support: “The small overall drop in support for Rudy Giuliani reflects a sizeable shift in opinion among Republican-leaning independents, who are about half as likely to back him today (18%) as they were in April (34%). By comparison, Giuliani’s support among voters who identify as Republicans has remained unchanged (31% in April, 30% today).” Why is this? Since April, one would think hard-core Republicans might have softened on Mr. Giuliani, over abortion perhaps. But it’s the independents whose support has softened. I admit I don’t have a good explanation. (Readers? Your thoughts?)
Given that Giuliani has spent the intervening months ditching his previous reputation as a moderate (with the exception of his apostasy on abortion) and studiously building up an aggressive, hyper-partisan image, we might posit that those “Republican-leaning independents” are growing disillusioned with the act. Notably, Thompson’s performance among those leaners improved dramatically — which also puzzles Sager, since Thompson is supposed to be the “true conservative” candidate. It is puzzling, but given how little voters really know about Thompson right now, it’s possible that he has gained support simply as someone for leaners to lean on during the course of their journey away from Rudy Giuliani, Super Con. At any rate, this would seem to be a worrying trend for the Giuliani campaign in terms of their general election prospects.
Also worthy of note: while the poll finds that only a minority of Republican and R-leaning voters are aware of Giuliani’s pro-choice position, it also finds that the information doesn’t generally change those voters’ opinions of him when they do find out.
4 Responses to “Poll: Giuliani Losing Independent Support”
Nervous, matt? Hardly. If Rudy wins the nomination (and he won’t. It will be Romney or Thompson), whoever gets the Dem nod will easily dispatch him.
As soon as the general electorate learns of Rudy’s fascistic leanings when it comes to foreign policy, and the giant erection he gets whenever he thinks of torturing people, they’ll say a collective, “No, thanks.” John Edwards was right when he called Rudy “Bush on steroids”.
Plus, do you even know how many skeletons are in that man’s closet? The corruption and shady dealings surrounding his mayorship are astounding. Sorry buddy, but Rudy don’t stand a chance.
Oh, and in terms of your silly little “hussein obama” joke, you remind me of a 3rd grade school-yard bully, you know, the one that goes around making fun of certain kids’ names, just because he really can’t think of anything more clever.
Do your parents know what you’re up to?
I’m sure they would ground you if they did.
giulaini’s leanings? i think the public is more worried about obama’s ‘have tea with the enemies and bomb our allies’ stance on foreign policy. the people know all about rudy, up and down, and the smears have failed.
and how exactly are the democrats different then bush? they passed his interogation laws, his wiretapping laws, they funded his war, what alternative are they presenting?
more then 50% of the american people have a negative reaction to hillary, she has the highest negatives in campaign history. she will be the nominee and rudy will easily defeat her, winning states like nj, penn, mich., along with the states bush held in 04. just read the polls, rudy crusheds the liberals in electoral math, its over before it even starts.
who is making fun, thats his name, he shouldn’t hide from it or be ashamed of his islamic roots.
its amazing that the left puts up 3 top tier candidates with a combined ZERO in executive experience for the biggest executive job on earth, hilarious.
[...] and in terms of the race for the nomination, good news for Thompson. His previous bounce had come thanks almost entirely to moderates, who had been drifting away from the hyper-partisan Giuliani. Now Hollywood Fred is getting [...]
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uh oh, looks like you guys saw yet another impressive debate performance, realizing more and more that rudy can win despite his social views, putting the pathetic liberal field on its heels and trying to cling to blue states all over the place. i know you guys are nervous, rudy is 10 times the debater hillary and hussein obama are, i’d be worried too if those 2 were my top tier haha.
Left by matt
August 5, 2007 at 8:54pm