Inside the shrinking tent
Plenty of folks are telling conservatives what they ought to think about the Republican presidential field, but what do conservatives actually think about it? Human Events decided to poll its readers. 1,984 likely primary voters answered this question: “If a Republican presidential primary were held in your state today, which of the candidates would you vote for?” Here are the results (rounded):
Thompson 25 percent
Giuliani 20 percent
Huckabee 19 percent
Romney 13 percent
Hunter 8 percent
Paul 8 percent
Tancredo 5 percent
McCain 2 percent
I find it interesting that Giuliani and Huckabee, the two men being read out of the conservative movement by (respectively) some social conservatives and some economic conservatives, finished basically tied for second place.
Respondents rated immigration the most important issue, which presumably explains McCain's microscopic number. It was followed by competence, homeland security, and Iraq.
Whatever the precise dimension of the present conservative tent, all Human Events readers have a good case for inclusion. But whether they constitute a representative sample, I don't know.
