AP Poll: GOP Presidential Race FluidFriday September 14, 2007 1:01 PM
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - White men, conservatives, evangelicals
and other pivotal building blocs of the Republican Party are
divided among its leading contenders for president, leaving
the race for the 2008 GOP nomination highly fluid, according
to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson are each attracting significant
support from core GOP groups, based on the poll conducted this
week. Even Sen. John McCain of Arizona, whose campaign has
been staggered by money problems and staff shake-ups, is
backed by solid shares of suburban, college-educated and
Midwestern Republican voters.
The roughly one-third of Republicans in the poll who said they
disapprove of the job President Bush is doing were gravitating
around all three of those hopefuls. Overall, the survey
underscores that no contender has yet to convincingly make
the case that he is the candidate for change that so many
voters want as the party searches for its identity and a
successor to Bush.
-snip-The poll showed the contest remains a virtual tie between
Giuliani, the former New York mayor, at 24 percent and
Thompson, the actor and former senator from Tennessee, at
19 percent. Not far behind at 15 percent is McCain while
former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has 7 percent.
-snip-