I love Ross Douthat, so it’s in a spirit of admiration that I write to question a sentence in the item about Rudy Giuliani that Peter Suderman linked to earlier. Douthat writes: “Giuliani’s road to the nomination is much, much harder than the current loose talk about him as the front-runner would indicate.” Here’s the thing: Rudy Giuliani is the frontrunner. In the Real Clear Politics poll of polls, he leads McCain by 5 percent. It may be meaningless to be the front-runner in February 2007, but as the term simply refers to the person who’s leading in the race, it’s not loose talk to call him the front-runner. It’s simply a fact — a fact that can change, and if and when it does, he won’t be the front-runner any longer. But not till then.