Giuliani Leads McCain by 22% Among Republicans in New Poll

A new poll from Quinnipiac University has McCain trailing former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani by 22 points, 40% to 18% among registered Republicans. If you click on the link in this entry's title, you can see the results of this poll and others on the Republican nomination race posted by Polling Point. It will be interesting to see what political commentators based in D.C. make of this poll.

Our analysis is that Republicans don't want to nominate any candidate who is linked so closely to Bush's Iraq War. Guiliani is linked to the events of 9-11, but not nearly as much to the Iraq War. Registered Republicans may want a candidate for president who can recall the heroism of the events of 9-11 without carrying the baggage of the mess that Bush has made of the Iraq War. The question then becomes whether the Democrats will nominate someone who can be labeled as a supporter of the war, at least at its inception.