Clinton vs Giuliani 2008?

If you thought 2000 and 2004 were no-win election situations, just wait for 2008. That is, according to the latest CNN/USA poll, which shows two New Yorkers – Democrat Hillary Clinton, the state's junior U.S. senator, and Republican Rudy Giuliani, former mayor of New York City – as the early favorites to win their respective party's nominations. Clinton was the choice of 43 percent of the Democrats polled, leading her two closest challengers (the 2004 ticket of Sens. John Kerry [MA] and John Edwards [NC]) by almost 30 points. Sen. Joe Biden [DE] got eight percent; Govs. Mark Warner [VA] and Bill Richardson [NM] had three percent each; and Sen Evan Bayh [IN] and Gov. Tom Vilsack [IA] both drew one percent among Democrats. Another 13 percent said they'd prefer someone else.

Giuliani, meanwhile, outpolled Sen. John McCain of Arizona among Republicans polled, by only eight percentage points, 30-22, with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gathering 18 percent, despite her repeated assertion that she has no plans to run. Others receiving support on the GOP side were Sen. George Allen [VA], seven percent; Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist [TN], three percent; and Govs. Mitt Romney [MA], three percent and Haley Barbour [MS], two percent. The other 15 percent of Republicans polled said they'd support someone else.

The CNN article notes the expectation that the 2008 race "could be the most wide-open contest in more than five decades. With President Bush unable to seek another term and Vice President Dick Cheney insisting he won't run to succeed him, the table is set for the first race since 1952 in which neither a sitting president nor a vice president is on the ballot." In that contest, they remind us, "Republican Dwight Eisenhower defeated Democrat Adlai Stevenson by a landslide electoral vote of 442 to 89."