Internal Warfare

There's a battle raging between two prominent right-of-center websites regarding a poll of potential candidates for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. Only a true political junkie would care about an election that's three years away...which is why I'm writing about it.

Patrick Ruffini, who was the webmaster for the brilliant Bush-Cheney 04 Internet campaign, has been conducting periodic polls where people can vote for their favorite candidate for the next election. His most recent poll, which showed Rudy Guliani leading the pack, sparked a furious rebuttal response from D J Drummond who writes for Polipundit. Ruffini responded today with a rebuttal of his own.

Leaving aside the merits of the case (whether the poll is valid at all and whether it proves anything if so) it's striking to see such energy expending this far out from the election. There's a whole election cycle remaining before the 08 primaries start. I'd prefer to see the guns trained on the opposition rather "red on red" fire. Rather than debate which candidate is leading the (for now) hypothetical field of candidates, let's build the groundwork for winning the next election.