Washington – Rudy Giuliani’s lead has shrunk in a GOP presidential race that has tightened recently, but he remains the top contender – possibly because many Republicans think he’s the most electable.
That’s the conclusion of a new Washington Post-ABC News poll released Wednesday.
It found that Giuliani is seen as the GOP’s best hope for winning the White House by nearly half of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents.
The new poll, which also says Giuliani leads his Republican rivals by more than 10 points, was welcome news for a campaign that has been on the defensive in the past week.
Though he cautioned it was just one poll and early in the primary process, Giuliani campaign manager Michael DuHaime told a Georgia radio interviewer Wednesday, “We feel very good in terms of being in that large of a lead right now.”
Giuliani’s staying power has confounded analysts who predicted in January his numbers would plummet, not just slip, once Republicans learned of his socially liberal views and personal life. For example, Giuliani supports abortion rights.
Last week, an analyst pointed out that Giuliani’s poll trendlines bear an eerie similarity to those of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., whose campaign is cash-poor, has shed top staff in a shake-up and is widely considered to be in trouble.
“Since early March, Giuliani’s support has fallen by an estimated 8 percentage points. McCain’s fell by 10 points since January,” wrote University of Wisconsin professor Charles Franklin on his Political Arithmetik blog. “And the rate of decline has been a bit steeper for Giuliani than for McCain.”
As Giuliani and McCain slid, Mitt Romney and new, all-but-announced candidate Fred Thompson moved up in what has become a four-way race.
Meanwhile, the new Washington Post-ABC News telephone poll – conducted from July 18-21, and with a 3 percent margin of error – found 37 percent for Giuliani, 16 percent for McCain, 15 percent for Thompson and 8 percent for Romney.
The poll also found that 45 percent said Giuliani had the best chance to win, compared with 15 percent for Thompson, 10 percent for McCain and 9 percent for Romney.
