Politico: Guiliani-Huckabee contest could split Gop

[cali]

Not only do polls consistently show Huckabee leading in Iowa, but he appears to be surging in other key states like South Carolina and even Florida. He has even started eating into former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's lead nationally, cutting it to just 2 points in the RealClearPolitics average.

Huckabee is tied with Giuliani in an early December American Research Group poll; Rasmussen puts the Arkansan in the lead.

A Giuliani-Huckabee race may be a surprise, but for Republicans it would not be a welcome one. Ideologically and geographically, the two candidates are almost perfectly positioned to tear apart their party.

Giuliani, the Northeastern social liberal, is strongly favored by many fiscal conservatives and national security hawks. He is a tax-cutter who emphasizes supply-side doctrines in his ads, and many on the right hope his law-and-order record in New York will translate into success in the war on terror.

Writing in the Weekly Standard, Noemie Emery acknowledged Giuliani's deficiencies on abortion and other social issues but argued "in a time of national peril" such litmus tests are "a luxury we cannot afford."

By contrast, Huckabee, the Southerner and onetime Baptist preacher, is reliably conservative on abortion, same-sex marriage and the role of religion in the public square.


<snippers>


http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7453.html

[DS1]

1. Guiliani, the social liberal

woof

[dbackjon]

4. Compared to most of the Republicans, yes he is

Compared to Democrats, generally no.

[TwilightGardener]

2. Bwahhh!! Abortion is wrecking the Republican party. Lovely to behold.

[calmblueocean]

3. Nope. Huckabee hurts Romney, not Giuliani.

Romney has set his campaign up so he has to win the early states in order to get the momentum he needs to propel him to solid finishes in the later states, where Giuliani is currently thriving. Huckabee won't carry the later states because he is fundamentally a spoiler candidate with too much baggage to be viable in the general election, and the GOP knows this. If Huck wins Iowa, the GOP kingmakers will turn up the heat on him until his poll numbers melt, leaving Giuliani to win the nom.

That's the way I see it, anyway.