If you get a chance, head on over to the latest self-selected, unscientific, online GOP ’08 straw poll being hosted by PoliPundit.? With a few hundred votes in, Rudy leads the pack by a mile, with Newt coming in second, and Romney a distant third.? No other candidate garners more than ten percent of the vote, including the once-champion of online polls, George Allen.? Giuliani and Allen usually clean up in these things; now, Allen is relegated to Huckabee/Brownback/Frist status while Newt, Rudy, and Romney battle for the nod.? And, as usual, McCain barely registers amongst actual conservative voters, despite the CW of the Beltway establishment and the squishy “Republican leaners” who lend the senator their support in the scientific polls.

Incidentally, it’s hard to imagine a Rudy/Gingrich/Romney race, if only because the three candidates occupy so much of the same space.? The differences between them are minimal, and I suspect what conservatives really want is someone with Rudy’s gravitas and can-do spirit, Newt’s intellect and communication skills, and Mitt’s executive experience and strong social conservatism.? And if Republicans had a candidate with all of that, they’d have, well, Ronald Reagan.