LOOKS LIKE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS HAVE FINALLY FIGURED OUT WHAT GIULIANI IS REALLY ALL ABOUT. SOUTH CAROLINA REPUGS SAY BYE-BYE RUDY

Not backward enough for South Carolina Republicans

Not many Americans have been following the run-up to the primaries and caucuses in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada the way DWT readers have. Even in those states, not many voters have been paying close attention. But they're starting to. A report filed today from a far right propaganda shill with GOP mouthpiece NationalReviewOnline explains what many people had long expected: Giuliani, in his words, is "cratering" in reactionary bastion South Carolina. His analysis of the just-released Palmetto Poll:

The poll shows Romney in the lead among Republicans with 17 percent – up from his fourth-place, 11 percent finish in the same poll in August. Fred Thompson is in second place at 15 percent, down from his first-place, 19 percent showing in August. Mike Huckabee is in third with 13 percent, well up from his fifth-place six percent in August. John McCain is in fourth place with 11 percent, down from his third-place 15 percent in August. And Rudy Giuliani – who was virtually tied with Thompson for first place with 18 percent in August – is in fifth place with nine percent in the new poll. Giuliani's nine-percentage-point drop is the biggest in the field. Finally, Ron Paul is in sixth place with six percent – up from one percent in August.

Of course, and as always, "none of the above" and "undecided" are the biggest vote getters among Republicans, a percentage that has actually grown as South Carolina Republicans have gotten to know their presidential field better. Or maybe South Carolina Republicans have just turned against Giuliani because they identify him with his most trusted statewide lieutenant, playboy/cocaine dealer Thomas Ravenel (and former Giuliani campaign chairman).