Hillary Clinton and Rudy Giuliani, once considered the inevitable presidential nominees, are facing increased competition from half a dozen rivals as the race tightens in both parties.
Clinton’s lead over fellow Democrat Barack Obama has slipped to 10 points in New Hampshire, where she had been leading Obama by 16 points, according to Rasmussen Reports. The slippage was blamed on Clinton’s performance in a recent Democratic debate, which she conceded was not “my best.”
Other polls show a slight softening of Clinton’s support nationally, though she continues to lead Obama by 23 points and rival Democrat John Edwards by 33 points, according to RealClear Politics, which averages the results of national polls.
RealClear has the national race much closer on the Republican side, where only 22 points separate Giuliani, the front-runner with 29.7 percent, from Mike Huckabee, who is in fifth place with 8.2 percent. In between are John McCain (16.5 percent), FredThompson (16.2 percent) and Mitt Romney (12 percent).
“Anybody who claims to know how this is going to turn out on the Republican side is either deluding themselves or trying to delude somebody else,” pollster Scott Rasmussen told The Examiner. “I can make a convincing argument why all five of the top Republican candidates shouldn’t be able to win the nomination. But one of them has to.”
As evidence of the race’s fluidity, Rasmussen cited a recent poll in which 60 percent of Republican voters in Iowa said they might change their minds about which candidate to support before the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses on Jan. 3.
Even the evangelical wing of the Republican base appears to be divided over which candidate to support. On Wednesday, Giuliani picked up the endorsement of evangelist Pat Robertson, while McCain was endorsed by pro-life Sen. Sam Brownback, a former GOP presidential candidate. Earlier, Romney was endorsed by evangelist Bob Jones III.
As for the Democrats, Bruce Ransom, a political science professor at Clemson University, said that Clinton’s debate stumble would not reshape the race.
“I’m not sure if we’re talking about something significant, but we could see things tighten up a little,” he said. “For weeks before the debate, Clinton was clearly moving ahead of everyone else on the Democratic side. But there might be some pause here.”
