By Jim Tankersley
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A cold gray veil has settled over California, dumping rain on the beaches and snow in the Sierras and cutting visibility; descending into the Oakland airport yesterday, the Golden Gate Bridge lay hidden beneath a low cloud ceiling before bursting into view moments before landing.
We offer this weather report as a quick metaphor for the Republican presidential race here, which is looking quite stormy with a week and a half to go before the Feb. 5 primary.
Two highly respected in-state polls this week show a cloudy and volatile struggle for the GOP lead in the Land of Reagan. A Field Poll released Wednesday had Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) leading with 22 percent of the vote, followed closely by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 18 percent (which is within the poll's margin of error). Late last night, the Public Policy Institute of California released a poll showing McCain up a dozen points on Romney, 29 percent to 17 percent.
Note that in both cases, the leading candidate still claims less than a third of the vote. (That's a contrast to the Democratic side; both Field and the PPIC have Hillary Clinton at about 40 percent and beating Barack Obama by double-digits.) In the Field poll, in one five Republicans still hadn't decided on a candidate. In the PPIC survey, nearly half said they weren't satisfied with their crop of candidates.
Both polls show Rudy Giuliani's California fortunes sinking fast. The former New York City mayor has dropped to about 10 percent of support – putting him in the same ballpark as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) – after leading the pack with a quarter of the vote in December polls.
Giuliani's drop coincides with McCain's climb, and it mirrors national polls. That suggests the numbers could change again, perhaps dramatically, depending on the results from Florida's primary next week.
The state weather forecast looks a little more static: rain, well into next week.
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Comments
The Republic Party is so pathetic, instead of giving us new idea's as to how to fix the things that their own party and their own parties President have spent the last seven years f-ing up, their only hope is that their robo-followers will hate Hillary.
The great thing about all of this is they have wasted the last 10-15 years spreading their irrational hatred of the Clintons and now they don't have anything new or shocking to bring up anymore.
Posted by: John E | January 25, 2008 1:57 PM
Geez...if only Congress would push through an amendment so the Governator could jump into the fray, wouldn't that be fun.
Posted by: dt | January 25, 2008 2:16 PM
Mitt Romney was the shining star in the debate last night. He runs circles around Senator McCain. And so much for "straight talk" McCain who was telling whoppers all night...."I never said that the economy wasn't my strong suit"..."I won the majority of the Republican votes in the primaries so far.." And how about not answering Ron Paul's question about the economy? Since Senator McCain didn't have a clue what the answer was, he began citing all the advisor's names that work for him. What we need is a strong leader who is conservative, who has experience outside of Washington's murky mess, and who loves the traditional GOP beliefs. Not a New York Times endorsee!!
Posted by: Ruthie | January 25, 2008 2:55 PM
Romney appeals to conservatives and will clean up from here on out--here are the issues:1. His stance on illegal immigration. McCain attempted to grant amnesty.2. His stance on the economy. Mitt outclasses every candidate on both sides and will provide the middle class with tax cuts, and slash the ridiculous corporate taxes stifling business growth. McCain is a joke on this issue and admitted he does not understand the economy.3. His stance on energy independence. Mitt understands the substantial investment required to develop clean, efficient energy resources but he is not going to punish the US by not drilling oil and refining gas--oil production in Alaska will not only be key to reduce gas prices for every American citizen, but will further boost the economy by providing an abundance of well-paying jobs. Remember the 80's? Again, McCain is an ignorant liberal on this issue.Romney will handily defeat the Clintons in 08'"The success [in Iraq] is due to the blood and the courage of our servicemen and women... not to General Hillary Clinton" - Mitt Romney
Posted by: Bobby Iwabucci | January 25, 2008 2:55 PM
"The success [in Iraq] is due to the blood and the courage of our servicemen and women... not to General Hillary Clinton"
- Mitt Romney
Posted by: Bobby Iwabucci | January 25, 2008 02:55 PM
What "success in Iraq" would that be, Bob?
That we can put 160,000+ troops in a tiny middle-east country (Iraq) and the violence will temporarly go down?
Iraq has no goverenment or no military to speak of and in case you stupid Wingers haven't noticed, the economy is tanking so we can't afford to have 160,000 troops in Iraq even if we wanted to without a draft.
I'd can't wait to hear Private Mitt talk his way out of that in a general election, but then again Plastic Mitt is good at serial lying and flip-flopping.
Posted by: John E | January 25, 2008 4:26 PM
if romney wins, we can all have multiple wives.
Posted by: inedal | January 25, 2008 4:51 PM
I have met Mitt Romney and John McCain. I do not know them personaly, but I have met them both and I have been following the nomination carefully. I am a big fan of both candidates, but for President of the United States, I am backing Mitt Romney. He is just the better man for the job. He has the energy, values, temperment and experience to lead our nation. McCain will always be loved as a war hero. God bless him for what he did. But we do not owe it to him to vote for him. I am an officer in the Navy and my vote is for Mitt Romney.
Posted by: Bowen Summer | January 25, 2008 4:53 PM
punish the US by not drilling oil and refining gas--oil production in Alaska will not only be key to reduce gas prices for every American citizen, but will further boost the economy by providing an abundance of well-paying jobs.
_____________________________
All pure BS. First, there is estimated to be a mere 5- 16 billion barrels of recoverable oil in the ANWR. Compare that to the lower 48, which has an estimated 105 billion barrels.
Additionally, there are no estimates of job production as a result of drilling in the ANWR. These are rarely included in oil production reports because they are difficult to predict. Moreover, the impact on world oil prices is not expected to be significant. Finally, drilling in the ANWR is so difficult, even of we started several years ago, it would have been 2013 before any oil reached us.
For the full story of why this all is, see...
http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/ftproot/service/sroiaf(2004)04.pdf
Wingers. Wrong on energy. Wrong on everything else too!
Posted by: rncbs | January 25, 2008 6:00 PM
"What "success in Iraq" would that be, Bob?"
Posted by: John E | January 25, 2008 4:26 PM
The success Hillary claimed came about due to her objection of the war--pay attention and follow along, please.
Posted by: Bobby Iwabucci | January 25, 2008 6:44 PM
The success Hillary claimed came about due to her objection of the war--pay attention and follow along, please.
Posted by: Bobby Iwabucci | January 25, 2008 6:44 PM
I'm paying attention, Bob and ALL of the GOPer candidates including Private Mitt are on the wrong side of the Iraq issue. Like I said goodluck with that in the general election.
Posted by: John E | January 25, 2008 7:07 PM
Mitt Romney tortured his families dog. He supported torture by calling waterboarding a secret method he would not ban.
Posted by: MarkD | January 25, 2008 9:21 PM
Romney really showed that he had the high test puke Kool Aid runnung through his veins last night. His being a Morman didn't ever bother me. However, his ideas and fantasies about Iraq and Bush scare the hell out of me. I don't care that my grandmother in Lansing liked Willard's father. I think Willard really is the Rat.
Posted by: Vivian | January 25, 2008 9:29 PM
I am concerned aobut Romneys "greater goal in mind"
http://www.withoneaccord.org/store/Romney.html
Posted by: concerned2008 | January 26, 2008 4:25 AM
"greater goal in mind"... it is so sad to me that people tend to believe anything they read. I read this distorted view of mormonism. It concerns me that anyone would smear information to this degree. I am a Mormon and have been my whole life. I have never believed that it is my duty to save the USA, I have never participated in any type of devil worship. I have attended the temple for years and have never used any token that would resemble slitting my throat. This is a perfect example of mixing truths with falsehoods to misdirect and scare those who do not know much about the LDS religion. It is interesting that a lot of "ex-mormons" tend to come up with all these accusations. If you want real information, investigate on your own, just as you are hopefully doing with the presidential candidates. Maybe even try to get to know a Mormon. You may find that they are pretty normal after all.
Posted by: S Harper | January 27, 2008 2:22 AM