Republicans in 2008
RCP has some interesting analysis of some polls over who will run for President for the GOP come 2008. The results are interesting, and not as obvious as the headlines would suggest. For example, on the surface:

The freshly released Diageo/Hotline poll has some interesting numbers on John McCain. The good news is that in a hypothetical '08 matchup McCain crushes Hillary 52-39 with 23% of Democrats saying they would vote for McCain. McCain also scored well when surveyed as an Independent in a 3-way race with Clinton and Jeb Bush, leading Republican analyst Ed Rollins to boast "According to these numbers, the GOP needs John McCain more than McCain needs the GOP."

But Tom Bevan notes that this McCain support is not very firm:

When asked "who represents what the Republican Party should stand for," Republican voters were evenly split between McCain, Condi Rice, and Rudy Giuliani. And then there's this:

In addition to the national sample, the Diageo/Hotline Poll studied an oversample of 100 registered Republicans to probe opinion on the party’s future and John McCain. Republicans are divided on who they would support in the 2008 presidential primaries, Giuliani, Rice, or McCain, (22%, 22%, 21%, respectively).

Very interesting, but as Bevan points out, you have to take polls this early with a high level of scepticism.
- posted by Base10 @ 9:31 AM