Informed Speculation

A new ABC News/Washington Post poll shows – guess who – Rudy G. leading the way among Republican candidates.  At some point, the Rudy G. naysayers are going to have to start paying attention, because there are very few polls he hasn’t led in, and John McCain is not a nobody – i.e., it’s not all name recognition:

Among Republicans, Giuliani is favored by 34 percent to McCain’s 26 percent. Gingrich is at 12 percent, and outgoing Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney runs fourth at 5 percent.

Furthermore, Giuliani has high favorables among both parties:

The Post-ABC poll also asked Americans to rate some of the potential candidates from both parties. Giuliani topped that list with a 67 percent favorable rating. Clinton was next at 56 percent, followed by McCain at 50 percent, Edwards at 49 percent and Obama at 44 percent. But many people haven’t formed solid impressions of candidates, including Obama and Edwards.

Clinton had the highest unfavorable rating, at 40 percent, but Romney had the worst ratio: 22 percent favorable to 24 percent unfavorable, with 54 percent saying they didn’t know enough about him to have an opinion.

Despite Clinton’s huge unfavorables, she holds a considerable lead over her closest rival Obama:

Among Democrats, Clinton leads the field with 39 percent, followed by Obama at 17 percent, Edwards at 12 percent, former vice president Al Gore at 10 percent and Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the party’s 2004 nominee, at 7 percent. No other Democrat received more than 2 percent.

My God, Kerry still at 7%? Who ARE these people?…