At first I didn’t think there was much that surprising in this morning’s Washington Post poll results focusing on Republicans, but now I’m realizing, “hey, Rudy’s still up big, McCain is a point way from second place, and Romney’s seven points back from third place.” Yes, elections are in caucuses and primaries, not national polls, but even with that consideration…

  • After the month he’s had, shouldn’t John McCain be metaphorically dead by now? I mean, the only thing that didn’t happen was for him to pose with a group picture with David Vitter, Michael Vick, and Lindsey Lohan. And yet he’s still at 15 percent nationally? Does this guy have a higher floor of support than many of us figured?
  • Yes, Romney’s doing quite well in the state polls in Iowa and New Hampshire. But shouldn’t this translate into national poll support at some point? I mean, he’s done well in the debates, his IA and NH ad buys get a decent amount of national coverage, he hasn’t had any huge gaffes since the dog-on-the-roof thing… and he’s still at 8 percent? When is he going to catch fire?
  • Rudy: Oh, the social conservatives will never vote for him, he’s too liberal, he’s too New Yawk… well, this poll shows some of that – 42 percent of conservatives and 51 percent of white evangelicals say Giuliani’s views on social issues as too liberal. But he still ends up with 37 percent, a whopping 21 points ahead of nearest rival Fred Thompson. Has the political power of social conservatives been a little overhyped?
  • Fred Thompson is at 16 percent. At this point, comparing him to the others is comparing apples and oranges, as Fred has no ads, no debate appearances, only a few speeches and few high-profile interviews. But in his current not-really-campaigning stage, he gets all the disadvantages (jabs from rivals, hit pieces in the L.A. Times) but none of the advantages of getting out and making the case for himself. Yet the word from his team is that he’s got at least another five weeks of this in-but-not-really-in limbo. Strikes me as weird, unless they’re absolutely convinced that nothing that happens in August matters.

For those of you expecting a slow political month… didn’t the Swift Boat Vets for Truth blow up in Kerry’s face in August 2004?