Giuliani soars

Giuliani soars, Obama closes gap in White House race: poll Thu Mar 8, 9:27 AM ET



Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani has more than doubled his lead in the latest voter poll on the Republican presidential nomination, while Senator Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) is closing in on Senator Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side, a new survey showed Thursday.

Giuliani, who led Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record) by six percentage points in December, leads his closest rival by 14 points, 38 to 24 percent, according to the nation-wide Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who led Republicans in their takeover of Congress in 1994, is a distant third with 10 percent, followed by Massachusetts ex-governor Mitt Romney with eight percent.

In a head-to-head matchup, Giuliani, who was dubbed "America's Mayor" for his leadership role after the September 11, 2001 attacks, takes a 21-point lead over McCain, with Republican voters favoring him 55 to 34 percent.

Ten months before the first party primaries for the 2008 election, Clinton's lead over Obama has shrunk by seven points, going from 37-18 percent in December to 40-28 percent in the new poll.

Ex-senator John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential candidate, is in third place with 15 percent of Democratic support, while New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson trails far behind with five percent.

In a face-off, Clinton leads Obama by eight points, 47-39 percent.

On the war in Iraq, the survey shows continued pessimism among Americans, with 69 percent -- the same as in December -- saying they are less confident about a successful conclusion while 20 percent say they are more confident.

President George W. Bush's decision to send 21,500 extra US troops to Iraq is unpopular, with 55 percent saying they strongly oppose the move. But 41 percent are strongly against Congress restricting funding to limit Bush's ability to deploy the additional troops.

The telephone survey was conducted March 2-5 among 1,007 adults. It has a 3.1-point margin of error.

Party nominees are chosen in a series of state-wide elections that begin in January 2008.