Greetings from Clemson, South Carolina, where John McCain is scheduled to make an appearance this morning before heading to Florida for the YouTube debate.
But the big news here is a new Palmetto Poll of the presidential race in South Carolina by Clemson University political scientists. The scholars warn that the numbers are close, and there are a lot of undecideds, but the headline is that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee have shot upward in the South Carolina standings, while Rudy Giuliani has taken a big dive.
The poll shows Romney in the lead among Republicans with 17 percent – up from his fourth-place, 11 percent finish in the same poll in August. Fred Thompson is in second place at 15 percent, down from his first-place, 19 percent showing in August. Mike Huckabee is in third with 13 percent, well up from his fifth-place six percent in August. John McCain is in fourth place with 11 percent, down from his third-place 15 percent in August. And Rudy Giuliani – who was virtually tied with Thompson for first place with 18 percent in August – is in fifth place with nine percent in the new poll. Giuliani’s nine-percentage-point drop is the biggest in the field. Finally, Ron Paul is in sixth place with six percent – up from one percent in August.
All of those numbers are smaller than the 28 percent who say they are undecided. The Clemson political scientists found that that number is actually up from August, when 20 percent said they were undecided. Given that, they stress the volatility of the race. “As the election itself draws closer, voters are taking their responsibilities more seriously, and respondents are less likely to make casual selection when queried about who they are likely to support in the January vote,” the Clemson scholars write.