Casually dating but agreeing to see other people :
Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney have emerged as the leading presidential favorites among party insiders, according to a new Los Angeles Times Poll, which found deep partisan divisions over the country’s direction and top issues in the 2008 campaign.
The survey showed former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina in second place among Democratic Party leaders, ahead of Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. It pointed up danger signs for Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who trailed former Massachusetts Gov. Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, the leader among Republicans in national voter surveys.
It also signaled GOP concerns about holding the White House for another four years — 42% of party leaders said it would be tougher to elect a Republican after eight years under President Bush, and just over half said the GOP nominee should campaign on moving the country in a new direction.
“I love President Bush, I really do,” Cindy S. Phillips, a Republican national committeewoman from Mississippi, said in a follow-up interview. “But you can’t be the same as the person before you. You have to bring your own touch, your own ideas.”
Phillips is looking hard at Giuliani.