McCain's Campaign Pours Water On Giuliani's Electability Argument

Or tries to, anyway.

From: Rick Davis
Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2007 9:24 AM
To: @ALL
Subject: Good Polling News


As I mentioned in this morning's staff meeting, Fox News released a survey last night that shows what you and I have known for a long time - John McCain is the Republican candidate best positioned to beat Hillary Clinton. As we all saw on the Fox News ticker, "GOOD NEWS FOR MCCAIN ... FOX NEWS POLL SHOWS THE AZ SENATOR DOING BEST AMONG GOP CANDIDATES WHEN MATCHED UP AGAINST SEN HILLARY CLINTON."

In a matchup against Hillary Clinton, John McCain is the only Republican candidate neck and neck with Senator Clinton and within the poll's margin of error of +/-3 percentage points. Rudy Giuliani trails Hillary Clinton by four points; both Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson would lose to her by twelve points. General election matchups, according to the October 9-10 Fox News/Opinion Dynamics Poll....

This poll confirms the Rasmussen poll, released on Monday showing John McCain only one point behind Hillary Clinton, compared to Rudy Giuliani who would lose to Hillary Clinton by 7 points.

In addition to the general election matchups, the Fox poll also shows Hillary Clinton easily beating Rudy Giuliani if a conservative third candidate enters the general election race, as Rev. James Dobson has threatened and as many other conservatives have suggested will happen. With a "Christian conservative third party candidate" in the race, Hillary Clinton beats Rudy Giuliani by ten points, 44% to 34% for Giuliani with 14% for the third party candidate.

What do these polls mean? They mean that John McCain's experienced leadership, courageous service and the bold solutions he is proposing on the campaign trail are resonating with the American people. They also mean that our party can nominate a candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton without compromising the bedrock principles and values that are our party's foundation. Republican primary voters are figuring out that supporting a candidate who is not prepared to be Commander in Chief from day one, or one who is out of step with our party's core values, is a recipe for another Clinton Administration.

Today, we need to spread the important news of these two recent polls and ask our grassroots and finance supporters to do the same. With the Iowa caucuses now set for January 3, 2008 and the New Hampshire primary date still up in the air, we are less than 80 days from the first votes being cast. Let's keep up the good work!

Thanks,

Rick