Thursday, November 15, 2007

Fox News/Opinion Dynamics (US): Giuliani 33, McCain 17, Thompson 12, Romney 8, Huckabee 8   [Rich Lowry]

 While John McCain trails front-runner Rudy Giuliani in the race for the Republican nomination, slightly more Americans see McCain as a straight-talker and as honest and trustworthy than Giuliani; furthermore, for the second month in row McCain performs better against leading Democrat Hillary Clinton in hypothetical matchups than any other top-tier Republican, according to a FOX News poll released Thursday.

And despite Clinton having the highest negative rating of all the top contenders, she continues to not only hold a commanding lead in her party’s primary, but also to best her Republican opponents in the horserace.

Overall, nearly half of voters (47 percent) think McCain "says what he believes," and 39 percent think he says what he thinks will get him elected; while 44 percent think Giuliani says what he believes and 47 percent what will get him elected.

A 57 percent majority says McCain is "honest and trustworthy," including almost half of Democrats and 60 percent of independents, while a 52 percent majority says Giuliani is honest and trustworthy, down from 58 percent this summer (5-6 June 2007).

The trait where Giuliani trumps McCain is on leadership; by a 12-percentage point margin, more voters think Giuliani is a "strong leader," although both are seen as having this quality by a majority of voters.

Giuliani’s 16-point lead in the race for his party’s nomination is essentially unchanged from last month — what has changed is the positioning of the other candidates. The poll finds the former mayor garners the support of 33 percent of Republicans, followed by McCain at 17 percent re-capturing second place for the first time since this summer, and Fred Thompson now in third with 12 percent.

Mitt Romney receives the backing of 8 percent, as does Mike Huckabee, even though the former governor of Arkansas is still virtually unknown to a lot Americans as well as many Republicans.

"What is striking is that Romney has spent huge amounts of money and gone nowhere while Huckabee has spent virtually nothing is actually catching up to Romney in places like Iowa," says Opinion Dynamics CEO John Gorman. "While things change, right now it appears there is something fundamentally flawed in the Romney effort."

11/15 03:13 PMShare