Republican and Conservative political analysis and commentary

Bad news for John McCain and Mitt Romney, but good news for Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee in the latest Bloomberg/LA TImes poll. Here's the horserace numbers for the Republican quest for the 2008 presidential nomination:

Rudy Giuliani: 29%
Fred Thompson: 15%
John McCain: 12%
Mitt Romney: 8%
Newt Gingrich 7%
Tommy "The Other" Thompson: 3%
Mike Huckabee: 3%
Sam Brownback: 2%
Duncan Hunter: 2%
Tom Tancredo: 2%

When the choice is between just the so-called "Big Three" of Giuliani, McCain and Romney, the spread is Rudy 48, McCain 25, Romney 20. There was no poll of just those three and Fred Thompson.

But, according to Bloomberg, Fred Thompson leads among "Christian Conservatives" polled by Bloomberg, with 21 percent compared to Giuliani at 17, McCain at 10, Gingrich at 9, Romney and Huckabee each at 6, Brownback at 2 along with Tancredo, and The Other Thompson at 1 percent.

Most interesting data above other than Fred Thompson in second in a race he hasn't even entered and winning among Christian Conservatives: Romney's 6 percent among Christian Conservatives. That's dismal for Romney, though Huckabee's 6 percent among the same group has got to have the Huckabee camp jazzed up today. They're running their campaign for the equivalent of the Romney campaign's pocket change, and have pulled even with Romney among the single most important group of voters in the Republican primaries. 

In the head-to-head with Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, Giuliani beats Clinton, but loses to Obama, according to the latest Bloomberg numbers, while McCain loses to either one.

The poll was taken before McCain's much ballyhooed speech Wednesday on the war in Iraq. 

Former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore is not registering in the Bloomberg poll. Neither is Ron Paul.