Gallup: Giuliani dips, McCain edges up, Romney slips; Clinton's lead is steady

Gallup: Giuliani dips, McCain edges up, Romney slips; Clinton's lead is steady
Lots of poll data to chew on this morning from our friends at Gallup.
First, Frank Newport and Joseph Carroll write at The Gallup Poll that:
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani continues to lead the national race for the Republican presidential nomination, although his support has faded to one of its lowest readings of the year. Former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson, who recently announced his candidacy, holds steady in second place, 8 percentage points behind the frontrunner. Meanwhile, Arizona Sen. John McCain has continued to recover from his early August doldrums and is in third place, only 4 points behind Thompson and more than 10 points ahead of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. Romney's mini-bounce after the Iowa straw poll in early August appears to have been short-lived.
According to Gallup's Sept. 14-16 poll of "401 Republicans or Republican leaners:"
• Giuliani's support dipped from 34% in the first week of September to 30%.• Thompson's support was unchanged, at 22%. • McCain's rose from 15% to 18%.• Romney's slipped from 10% to 7%.
"In general," Frank and Joe write, "support for McCain has shown gradual improvement over the past month, and Americans' opinions of McCain are at their highest point since May. McCain is now rated as favorably by Americans as Giuliani, and more so than the less-well known Thompson or Romney."
Gallup says those GOP numbers each have margins of error of +/- 5 percentage points.
Meanwhile, Frank writes at our Gallup Guru blog that Clinton continues to lead "overwhelmingly -- with Sen. Barack Obama in 2nd place" among Democrats and Democratic leaners.
Gallup's latest Democratic numbers:
• Clinton, 47%, vs. 45% the first week of September.• Obama, 25%, vs. 24%.• John Edwards, 11%, down from 16%.
Frank concludes, by the way, that "one would have to assign a fairly low probability at this point to the chances of any one other than Clinton ending up with the party nomination."
The Democratic figures also have margins of error of +/- 5 percentage points.