Lack of presidential front-runner new for GOP

By comparison, by March of 2007, the GOP front-runner was former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who held a double-digit lead over Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). That marked the only presidential cycle since 1964 in which the eventual GOP nominee hadn’t already taken a lead over the presidential pack by spring of the year prior to the election.   

Some polling from the early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina shows the race a bit more defined — with Romney consistently polling well ahead in the Granite State, for example. Still, there’s ample evidence that Republican voters aren’t wholly satisfied with their roster of presidential possibilities just yet. 

Aside from the national polls bunched at the top, the continued clamor for someone like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) to jump in the presidential race is telling. Despite emphatic 2012 denials and repeated claims that he doesn’t think he’s ready for the Oval Office, a new Quinnipiac University poll found him among the most popular Republicans nationally as conservatives continue to encourage a Christie run. 

Gallup’s Lydia Saad points out that given the pattern, there’s no historical guide for how the fragmented Republican race might eventually play itself out — something that could also pull the party into uncharted waters when it comes to organizing and fundraising for 2012.  

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