The new Washington Post poll echoes the recent Newsweek survey in that it shows Rudy Giuliani maintaining his position at the front of the Republican pack. But the Post sounds unconvinced, calling the GOP race the “most open in decades”:

Former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani maintains a double-digit lead over his main rivals, but most of his supporters [55%] back his candidacy only “somewhat,” and he has yet to gain momentum among key primary voting groups or to distinguish himself as the best candidate for the party. Adding to the murkiness of the picture is that Republicans continue to be less satisfied with their candidate options than Democrats are with theirs.

The poll also finds McCain surging, while Thompson treads water and Huckabee remains stuck between the first and second tiers:

Rudy Giuliani 33
John McCain 19
Fred Thompson 16
Mitt Romney 11
Mike Huckabee 9
Ron Paul 3
Duncan Hunter 2
Tom Tancredo 1

Also interesting is the confusion among GOP voters as to just who represents their party’s “core values.” 25% percent pick Giuliani, 24% McCain, 29% choose Thompson, and 17% say Romney. To some extent this may be because there’s a good deal of confusion these days over exactly what those values are, but it probably also has to do with the candidates’ failure to take much leadership in sorting such questions out. Everybody wants to be as conservative as possible for the primary, even to the point of berating the GOP for not having been conservative enough during its recent reign of error, but the elephant in the room is that conservatism itself is in crisis.

Posted by Paul Curtis
Monday, November 5, 2007 at 8:25 am

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