Fascinating Newsweek poll on the presidential match-up

Newsweek has published a fascinating poll showing the different match-up races between the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. The poll was conducted by the Princeton Survey Research Associates International. There is a lot of interesting information here that I haven't fully analyzed yet, but I'll give some highlights. In a race between Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, Giuliani leads Clinton 47 percent to 46 percent. A majority of the Republicans (91 percent) support Giuliani, while a majority of the Democrats support Clinton (83 percent). However, the independents split the vote with 42 percent supporting Clinton, while a slight majority of 49 percent support Giuliani. Giuliani leads in a race against Barack Obama at 48 percent supporting Giuliani and 43 percent supporting Obama. In a match-up with John Edwards, Giuliani leads Edwards 47 percent to 45 percent. In a match-up race with either John McCain or Mitt Romney, all three front-running Democratic candidates lead in the poll against both McCain and Romney. Registered Republicans approve of Giuliani over that of McCain (59 percent to 34 percent) or Romney (59 percent to 26 percent). And finally, President Bush's approval rating is polled at 31 percent approve and 61 percent disapprove.

It is a fascinating poll. While Giuliani appears to lead in match-up races between all the Democratic and Republican candidates, it is still very early in the campaign. Giuliani has yet to announce his candidacy for the race. There is still a lot of buzz and speculation regarding a Giuliani candidacy that the Giuliani campaign staff is using to promote their candidate. But there has yet to be a hard, critical examination into Giuliani's past, his record as mayor of New York, or even what his views and positions are on the current issues and political policies. Giuliani is leading this race due to his name recognition--especially when Giuliani's name is linked to the September 11th attacks.