57% of Republicans "Want More Choices" In Presidential Race

No, Giuliani fans. This race is far from over.

by Rod D. Martin
March 13, 2007

57% of Republicans "want more choices" in next year's Presidential race, according to a CBS/New York Times poll. Well, no shock there: the candidates they know about don't represent them well, and the rest of the field remains, well, largely unknown. It's extremely telling when the consistent number three man in the race (Newt Gingrich) isn't even a declared candidate and genuinely might not run. To the degree that this number is surprising, it is in this: Republicans normally coalesce around a candidate very quickly. That is not happening this year.

But the rest of the numbers from the poll are rather more interesting.

It turns out Democrats are very satisfied (57%) with their field. But that's an historical oddity too. More specifically, in August 2003, 57% of Democrats wanted more choices in their own 2004 field: Howard Dean had just surged ahead of his rivals on a wave of internet activism and giving, proceeded to race to a prohibitive front-runner stat…