Doesn’t appear to be officially released yet, but there is chatter on the political wire that Survey USA will release a poll today showing Allen leading Webb by 5 points.? This poll was taken entirely after the new charges against Allen were?publicized this week, and the sample is very volatile, with Allen leading on days that he denies the charges and Webb leading on days that a new accuser steps forward.? Allen’s three-day average puts him at 49%, which is fairly close to 50, and it wouldn’t take much to push him?over the finish line.? Stay tuned…
Update: Here’s?the poll.? Note that the number of undecideds is smaller than Allen’s margin over Webb.
September 27th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
I don’t doubt that Allen will keep his Senate seat this November, but does anyone doubt that he won’t announce he’s not running for President afterward?
September 27th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
I imagine his ’08 donor base will disappear hours after his reelection.
September 27th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Webb is a horrible candidate. No true Reaganite, as he purports to be as a former Secretary of the Navy under President Reagan, would become a modern day Democrat. And Webb cannot himself deny using the term “nigger’ and implies that people of the south all do it.
So I agree that Allen ultimately holds on to this seat. But I think Allen is also finished as a national Republican candidate. He may be a better choice than Webb, but he is not a better choice than other 2008 GOP presidential hopefuls, I am sorry to say.
September 27th, 2006 at 4:44 pm
You guys have been “sticking the fork” in allen forever now, everytime something pops up, “Allen is done”. Please. Daveg, when the scandal first broke a few days ago you wanted to pull a toricelli on allen, completely believing anything the democrats say about allen. Allen will win this race and he will head into ’08 a legitimate contender. If Allen wins decisively, this whole bruhaha will only help allen as he can go into ’08 saying that he was able to survive a media shit storm and rebound from it it. The entire national media has their guns aimed on him and it did drag him down. Winning decisively(note, this doesnt apply if the race is really close) will help him prove to primary voters that he will be able to take on the democrats and the slime storm that will come.
No other ’08 candidate can legitimately claim they have experienced the viciousness allen has and will be able to handle it come election time. Everybody claims their guy will be able to, but only Allen (once again, if he wins by a good margin) can say he has
September 27th, 2006 at 4:51 pm
SDGOP-
I just cannot see how Allen can be a serious contender any longer. Too much baggage. Too many alternatives.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:10 pm
“Daveg, when the scandal first broke a few days ago you wanted to pull a toricelli on allen, completely believing anything the democrats say about allen.”
As I’ve detailed at least twice now, that was largely due to my underestimation of the ego of one Larry Sabato, who has spent years as a nonpartisan political observer and who, I thought, would never charge a candidate for Senate with racism unless he had a smoking gun of sorts. Turns out all he had was the same proof the Times and the Post have. I was expecting a video of Allen eating puppies. Instead we got nothing except hot air from Sabato.
“If Allen wins decisively, this whole bruhaha will only help allen as he can go into ‘08″
Allen is damaged goods. I suspect his current movement-wide support is actually proxy support for a Republican Senate, and come November 8th, there will be few if any Allen ’08 donors or endorsements from the bigwigs.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
I few months ago, Allen was my first choice. He was and will remain a solid conservative vote on nearly all issues. I do not think he meant the “macaca” utterance in a racist way. And whether he used the “n” word in college is irrelevant given his decidedly non-racist public life and record.
But, he is not the best debater and his taunting of the Webb spy did not show good judgment. I just don’t see him as a string presidential candidate anymore. But he is a good conservative republican and one of our best senators,.
September 27th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
btw, I said yesterday that the Sabato collusion with the MSM to smear Allen would assure Allen of re-election. But what really assures re-elections and elections for the GOP is being conservative.
September 29th, 2006 at 8:22 am
I think DaveG and Gamecock have the best takes on this issue. Though I first met George Allen 32 years ago in law school, I have never supported him for President. I have always, in the 2008 context, supported Rudy Giuliani. Moreover, I have been more-or-less astounded, for two years or so now, that anyone, let alone the “professionals”, would take George seriously as Presidential timber. That said, the recent “piling on” against George by the MSM, and even some on the Right, has brought me “out of the woodwork” as a vocal supporter of his re-election! True, I can’t see his contending seriously for President, but if he wins re-election, by say 5 points or more, I would not count him “out” as a choice for Vice President.
Full disclosure: I am one of those (adopted) New Yorkers who felt somehow “cheated” out of a Rudy-Hillary race in 2000, though I am infinitely glad, for Rudy and for the Country, at how it actually turned out! On the level of pure, almost sensual, pleasure, I would love to see this almost-mythical “race-that-never-was” played out on the national stage in 2008! Moreover, now that I am back in Virginia, after some 30 years away, I would like to see, on the same level of pleasure, George and Mark Warner as the respective Republican and Democrat nominees for Vice President. I realize that I could probably take a flutter at 100-1 against at Ladbrooke’s.
November 20th, 2006 at 2:45 am
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