2008 US Presidential Election.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) has moved a step closer to officially enter the 2008 race for the White House, but polling in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination remains little changed. Giuliani attracts 27% of the vote, down from 29% a week ago. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record)’s (R) support has held steady at 19% among Likely GOP Primary voters.

Rasmussen Reports releases updated polling data on the Republican nominating contest every Tuesday. Results for the Democrats are updated on Mondays.

While Giuliani and McCain remain in the top two slots, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R) dropped a few points and now is favored by 13%. Trailing Gingrich is former Massachusetts Mitt Romney (R) at 9% and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) at 4%.

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The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone poll shows that former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) continues to hold an eight-point lead over Senator John McCain (news, bio, voting record) (R) in the race for the Republican nomination. Giuliani now earns 30% of the vote, up from 28% a week ago. John McCain (R) has support from 22% while former House Speaker Newt Gingrich remains in third at 12%.

Former Massachusetts Mitt Romney is back in double digits at 10%. Another former Governor Mike Huckabee registers just 2% as does Senator Sam Brownback (news, bio, voting record). Senator Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record) registers support from 1% of GOP voters.

While McCain continues to hold a solid second place in this polling, a separate survey shows he has lost ground in general election match-ups. In fact, for the first time in any Rasmussen Reports polling, McCain has fallen behind a Democratic competitor, trailing both Illinois Senator Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) and former North Carolina Senator John Edwards. McCain may be hampered by the situation in Iraq (considered the most important issue by voters). Most Americans believe we should be reducing the number of U.S. troops fighting in that country while McCain supports the President’s call for more troops.

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WASHINGTON - First, Newt Gingrich said he would run for president in 2008 only if no other Republican emerged as a clear front-runner. Now, the former House speaker says he will run only as a “last resort.”

His assessment came in response to a question by Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday.”

“You sound as if you think about running for president as a last resort, not as a first resort?” Wallace asked.

“Exactly,” Gingrich answered. “I mean, nobody’s ever said it quite that way, but you’re right.”

Gingrich said he first hoped to influence the presidential race by providing candidates in both parties with his “solutions” to problems such as health care, energy, education, national security and immigration.

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‘Newt Gingrich still denies that he has made up his mind about whether or not to seek the presidency — and if he does, it will only be because America demands it. “I am not ‘running’ for president,” he told Fortune magazine in November. “I am seeking to create a movement to win the future by offering a series of solutions so compelling that if the American people say I have to be president, it will happen.”

‘Gingrich is, however, running away from his former friends. As the former speaker of the House unsubtly positions himself for a shot at the nomination, his latest tactic seems to be distancing himself from the political polonium that is the Bush administration. A recent article in Insight magazine, a publication affiliated with the conservative Washington Times newspaper, describes unnamed sources “close to Gingrich” as saying the former speaker was breaking with the administration: “Newt bit his tongue for months and now feels he has to tell his base the truth: the White House does not have the will or the power to promote any agenda.”

Salon Magazine article