Desperation in the ranks

During Sunday's "Meet the Press", Timmy quoted a poll (sorry, I had to go to the transcript and it doesn't mention which poll) taken among Republicans, and I found the results interesting.

According to the quoted national poll among Republicans, as to which candidate they favor at this time, Giuliani wins with 27%, Fred "Hounddog" Thompson, who's FINALLY going to throw his hat in the ring Thursday, comes in second with only 17%, and Prince Romney, who's literally spending a fortune on his race, trails with 15%, and McCain gets 12%, showing that "straight talk" isn't appreciated in the Republican party.

How bad are things when Rudy Giuliani is comfortably atop that poll? And what does it say about Republicans? I'd suggest it shows that they show a penchant for being easily frightened, as that's pretty much the only feature of Rudy's campaign so far, banging on 9-11 and trying to scare the bejesus out of people about the real or imagined terrorist threat, and suggesting he's the only one who can keep us "safe".

But making the above numbers even more remarkable is the result of a poll among Republicans asking who they felt had the best chance of winning against a Democratic candidate.

Rudy does even better on that score, with a whopping 38% saying he'd be the most likely to win, then comes Thompson with 13%, McCain moves up one slot with 13%, and Romney trails with 11%.

As someone who knows another Republican administration would be a continuation of the past disasterous reign, I find these polls heartening.

Rudy Giuliani?

I think revelations about his past, his many associations with shady figures and habit of having his top assistants revealed to be crooks, dope dealers, etc. will tarnish him terribly.

His entire campaign is perched upon the publicity heaped on him as Mayor of NYC during 9-11.

Why did he get this publicity? Because George Bush ran like a rabbit and followed his insincts to go AWOL when the going got tough.

The nation was desperately looking to leadership, and Bush was hiding in a hole, only emerging on a short video that looked like a hostage tape with little George looking like he was so scared he was wetting his pants. Not exactly reassuring.

Rudy was there and performed well for the cameras, and the country was eternally grateful.

Then there's the liklihood Giulliani be eaten by his own for not conforming to the rigid intolerant standards of the fundy right which have been allowed to dominate his party.

Such backwards medievel notions might be on the way out even among Republicans. We can only hope they are for the country's sake, though if they really are determined to lose, let's hope they are every bit as obsessed with other people's sex lives. After dozens of the most strident fundy followers are revealed to have not practiced what they preached, maybe more people will realize, as the country has for the previous several decades, that intolerance isn't a moral value, doesn't strenthen our society, but tears it apart, and is not the way to prosper in the future.

Why Rudy?

And what does it say that Romney, who someone aptly compared to a Sears underwear model, is trailing so far behind?

What sort of field do the Republicans have when a guy who hasn't even announced is ahead of all but one other candidate?

One of the pundits on Meet the Press accurately described all of the Republican front-runners as having "glass jaws".

Can any of them give the Dem nominee a challenge?

And as long as we're at it, I might as well throw out the question of whether Hillary Clinton would be a lock to win were she the Dem nominee, or, as the Republicans (and Dems who fall for it) would have us believe, would she so energize opposition that she'd be vulnerable to defeat?

A good point was made by James Carville when he noted that being hated by hard-core Republicans isn't exactly the kiss of death. The rabid right would never vote for her anyway.