Giuliani is the Repbulican insider's favorite. But look for a Romney upset, as Giuliani has made some serious strategic mistakes that will hurt his campaign.

And if Giuliani is capable of holding off the Romney surge after Iowa, he truly sucks as a candidate, and actually has a lot more negatives to exploit than Hillary.

When the truth comes out about his do nothing role in 9/11 and his taking credit for others in the management of NYC, his candidacy will tank right along with the GOP.

I smell a reverse-Swift Boat in store for Giuliani as police and firefighters tell the truth about his exploitation of the 9/11 tragedy.

Posted by Metteyya at 11/16/2007

Do any of you actually read the question, or do you just pick the name you like? As much as you may love Ron Paul, Rudy is definitely the best position to take the nomination. To think Paul has a dream in hell to get even a handful of votes is ignorant.

Posted by davefoley0 at 11/16/2007

Dave Foley, do you live in NH? I do, and Ron Paul has every chance of coming in a strong second here, which translates to instant credibility as a "comeback kid" ala WJ Clinton. Rudy Giuliani on the other hand is going down in scandalous flames as soon as the gloves come off, and America is moving more toward rejecting neocons in general anyway.

Ron Paul's secret to success is that no GOPer is expected to actually win thanks to Bush's evil stain, so now an outsider has the best chance in years. What you so glibly call ignorant is just you watching too much tv.

Posted by blurbster at 11/16/2007

METTEYYA, you're watching too much tv too! This comment of your's is right off cable news: "Giuliani has made some serious strategic mistakes that will hurt his campaign." Nobody speaks like that, that's tv talk. You don't have an original thought?

Posted by blurbster at 11/16/2007

Great descriptions. I voted for Mitt's hair b/c I believe many neocons are transfixed by appearance(s).

Posted by lewwelge at 11/16/2007

BLURBSTER, I think your comment about METTEYA's post suggests you have diagnosed something larger, a terrible epidemic that is positioned to kill off democracy altogether: Parrot Disease, or maybe Echolalia, in which people who are afraid to think for themselves simply repeat what they've heard, and, dang, y'all, it sounds right to them because, well, they've heard it elsewhere.

Critical thinking is at an all-time low among a population with an all-time high rate of education and exposure to both facts and commentary. I'm hoping the internet will spark a revolution in critical thinking, despite all the negative things it's been responsible for.

Teaching writing in universities, I have found that students are unaware that they CAN have original thoughts. I used to teach in China, and there , in the Confucian tradition, cliche studs students' essays like cloves on a ham. And dadgum, look at the mindset that attitude led them to: it's a breeding ground for totalitarianism.

I've also found (among American students) that they don't realize that democracy doesn't mean any person's thought is the equal of any other person's. College students spout off like lawn sprinklers without any support or articulation or logic, because earlier teachers have not held them to account... because THEY haven't realized how critical logic and rhetoric are to maintaining free thought in a society we'd like to become a good deal freer.

(Metteyya, I'm not critiquing you. Blurbster just brought up an issue that's hot-button with me: the necessity not to succumb to echolalia, in order to keep free thinking alive!)

Posted by amalie bear at 11/16/2007

"Do any of you actually read the question, or do you just pick the name you like? As much as you may love Ron Paul, Rudy is definitely the best position to take the nomination. To think Paul has a dream in hell to get even a handful of votes is ignorant."

Actually, Mitt Romney is way ahead of Giuliani in Iowa, the only primary state that matters.

Posted by bransby at 11/17/2007

What hAPPENED TO dENNIS kUCINICK? hE WON YOUR LAST POLL !

Posted by Rese at 11/17/2007

lOU dOBBS A rePUBLICK ICK AN CANDIDATE

OK

Posted by Rese at 11/17/2007

dOBBS IS AT LEAST BELIEVABLE

hE KNOWS CORPORATIONS HAVE MORE RIGHTS THAN HUMANS...

hE'S ON THE $

Posted by Rese at 11/17/2007

Dobbs for President

Kucinick for V. P

Christine Meserve for Secretary of Health education

Winning ticket! Don;t forget treatment of New Orleaners by Blackwater et. al.

Posted by Rese at 11/17/2007

I think Lou Dobbs is in the best position if he wants it, but as a third party candidate. I would actually vote for him if one of the Democratic Corporate Hacks, e.g. Biden, wins the primary.

Posted by D1od1o at 11/18/2007

"Ron Paul, the libertaran truth-teller who knows how to leverage the Internet ..."

WTF?

Let's deconstruct this for just one cotton pickin' minute.

"libertarian truth-teller" -- well, maybe around the offices of the Nation, but a man who deliberately hides what being a libertarian means to the point that this little poll of yours shows him the leading candidate on a presumably progressive web site is not a truth-teller to me. The man is a kick-em-in-the-teeth economic Darwinist who never met a regulation that he could support, would never ever support national health care, would dismantle the IRS because it's a progressive tax structure, and would remove everything the business community dictates to him is an impediment to their unbridled Ayn Rand brand of prideful greed. Oh, and he's got a good position on the war. Big whup.

"knows how to leverage the internet" -- again, presuming that indeed the typical Nation reader is not only progressive but politically well-read, one might assume that Ron Paul would never come out on top on a question that asks who is best positioned to take the nomination, which Ron Paul clearly is not by any measure.

So yes, if you mean a bunch of Ron Paul trolls infiltrating progressive web sites dangling the shiny keys of distraction about a candidate that looks good on the war but nothing else a progressive stands for, then yes, they're leveraging the internet all right.

For the love of Pete, don't tell me the Nation staff is falling for this Ron Paul bullsh!t too!

And what about the "straight talkin' Republican POW demigod who thinks Hillary is a b!tch because she is" --- John McCain?? You didn't even bother to spin him.

Who on earth framed this propaganda?

Posted by trippin at 11/18/2007

"'libertarian truth-teller'-- well, maybe around the offices of the Nation, but a man who deliberately hides what being a libertarian means to the point that this little poll of yours shows him the leading candidate on a presumably progressive web site is not a truth-teller to me. The man is a kick-em-in-the-teeth economic Darwinist who never met a regulation that he could support, would never ever support national health care, would dismantle the IRS because it's a progressive tax structure, and would remove everything the business community dictates to him is an impediment to their unbridled Ayn Rand brand of prideful greed. Oh, and he's got a good position on the war. Big whup."

Yeah, big whoop, the most important issue we face as a society is reduced to zero by you. And how is he "hiding" what libertarianism means?

It's not like with a Democratic congress he'd be able to push through any real right-wing economic policies. On the other hand, he would be able to pass legislation to end the war.

Posted by bransby at 11/18/2007

C'mon, get off the pot. Where's McCain?

Posted by sloper at 11/18/2007

"Ron Paul, the libertaran truth-teller who knows how to leverage the Internet"

This is a misconception of Ron Paul. Ron Paul does not specifically know how to use the Internet as his leverage. People and supporters of Ron Paul use the Internet to help Ron Paul. The reason for this is because Ron Paul gets very little coverage in all the other media forms including TV, newsprint, radio, and elsewhere including the debates.

Furthermore everyone knows that there is no distinct front runner in the GOP party. There are a lot of upset members of this party. Considering that a pro-war candidate will not win the presidential nominee, I think it can at least be said that Ron Paul has the best chance of winning an election against a Democrat if he is able to get the Republican nomination, than any other GOP candidate. This does not answer the question of the poll, but I think it has more significance than the question and perhaps could be used to vote for Ron Paul in this poll.

Also Ron Paul is very republican. He wants to give states the right to make the difficult decisions on abortion (which he is against), marijuana and other drugs, marriage issues, etc. If that's not republican, than I do not know what is.

Posted by Clif25 at 11/18/2007

As repugnant as George W. Bush's brand of social conservatism has been, it is not ideology that is at the heart of his administration's failure but his personality, for in the post-ideological world the politics of personality is all that remains. The worst excesses of the Bush regime have stemmed directly from its leader's character - that is, its rampant cronyism; its arrogance and egotism; its peremptory, bullying tone and methods; its refusal to brook criticism from within or without; its frighteningly authoritarian impulses; its need to create enemies as a means of governing; its impulsiveness and naivete: its outright contempt for the law; and its truly staggering ability to substitute its own versions of what it wishes the world to be for any recognition of objective reality. What a sorry, sorry state for this country, and he, Darth Vader, and their "policies" are the real culprits.

Judging from what we have seen so far in this political season, there is no reason to believe that any of the Republican candidates running to fill his small shoes would be substantially different, and one or more of the leading candidates would be even worse.

Posted by swanie at 11/18/2007

No McCain but you list a non-candidate like Lou Dobbs. Is that supposed to be Vanden Heuvel's sense of humor?

And Swanie, the analysis of Bush is off the mark. Everything you said is true about Cheney and the goons around him. Bush himself is a weak, insecure little man who is told what to say and when to say it by the powers that put him in office. I imagine he goes to sleep every night in a fetal position with Laura assuring him that everything will be better in the morning.

All the assholes who assured W that he could succeed in a war his father was smart enough not to finish are all gone now except for the "evil one". Wolfowitz, Perle, Rove, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Card, Bolton, Podhoretz and several unnamed who linger in the shadows are all gone from the public eye but waiting in Cheney's closet in case by some miracle a Republican gets back into the White House next year.

Posted by bean22 at 11/19/2007

THE POLL DIDN'T ASK WHO DO YOU LIKE BEST...

It said who is "best positioned" to win Republican Presidential nomination. This has to be Drag Queen Rudia despite all his/her negatives. I don't even think it's because American believe he will make them more "secure" (whatever that means in this day and age). DQR simply knows how to make the best use of the mass media. He's a pure PERFORMER from Day One (of 9/11). If he weren't, he wouldn't be so into cross-dressing and hey, if elected he can even be his own first lady.

I definitely think its going to come down to the Queen vs. the Drag Queen....

Posted by w_m_bear at 11/19/2007

In my opinion, Ron Paul makes he most sense in almost every position. However, Guiliani will probably win the nomination as the evangelicals will no doubt vote for him as a result of Pat Robertson's endorsement.

Posted by WRJohnson at 11/19/2007

Posted by BLURBSTER 11/16/2007 @ 4:57pm

Sorry, Blurbster, but I do not own a TV by choice.

All of my thoughts are my own, so if this is what they are saying on TV as well, then Giuliani is in a lot more trouble than I thought.

The guy is a phony and completely unqualified to be president. Obama looks like the most experienced candidate in the world compared to the former mayor of NYC. Just curious...what does street cleaning, traffic management, and city bureaucracy have to do with running the United States of America?

Giuliani is a one trick 9/11 pony, and that trick is getting kind of old, don't you think?

Posted by Metteyya at 11/19/2007

I smell a reverse-Swift Boat in store for Giuliani as police and firefighters tell the truth about his exploitation of the 9/11 tragedy.

Posted by METTEYYA 11/16/2007 @ 1:22pm

THE PROBLEM WITH POLICE AND FIREFIGHTERS DISSING DRAG QUEEN RUDIA (AKA DQR)...

Is that they are telling the truth. The original Swift Boaters were lying through their teeth when they trashed John Kerry's Presidential candidacy. In American politics, lies always seem to work better, otherwise DQR's negatives (lying about his 9/11 role, his cross-dressing) would already have caused his candidacy to tank big time. Thus DQR is the Repuke candidate who worries me MOST....

Posted by w_m_bear at 11/20/2007

I live in a state where I can vote in both primaries. I had been planning to vote for the least repulsive 'Pub but have since decided to vote for the candidate most likely to loose in the general election, among those with a real shot at the nomination. Suggestins anyone?

Posted by Harlock at 11/20/2007

It's amazing - Ron Paul would appear to be what the Republicans always talk about they want: A man who would give us liberty, less government, and no income taxes. Yet he has the principles to say that the Iraq war was based on lies, and he is ignored and booed.

This goes to show that most Republicans are as much big government types as the Democrats.

Posted by Tom Paine Jr at 11/20/2007

Ron Paul is the best positioned to be the GOP nominee?! Ha ha! I guess that says something about the insight of most "Nation" readers!

Posted by tshawytscha at 11/24/2007

It always comes down to good hair. And teeth. Anybody who resembles Matlock is a sure winner.

Posted by jennip at 12/3/2007

John McCain will be the nominee. He's the only one who hasn't cycled through as flavor of the month yet and he'll peak when it counts. Dubya annointed him in '03 anyway, when McCain became a Bush butt-buddy. It's a fatally flawed flock of repug phonies this cycle. They know they can't win. So McCain will be the decorated, loyal sacrificial lamb just like was Dole in '96- another year they knew they'd get their asses kicked. '08 is even looking more like LBJ/Goldwater- who could ever vote for someone even in the same party as Bush/Cheney???

Posted by Satrianobama at 12/18/2007