Voters would invite Giuliani, Obama to picnic

NEW YORK: US voters, if they could spend a Memorial Day picnic with any of the leading presidential choices for 2008, would pick Republican Rudolph Giuliani and Democrat Barack Obama, a poll released on Friday said.   

The former New York City mayor was picked by 37 per cent, while the Democratic senator from Illinois was chosen by 33 per cent of voters, according to the Quinnipiac University poll.   

Second among the Republican choices was Arizona Sen. John McCain, followed by former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson, who has not formally entered the race, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to join voters at a Memorial Day picnic, a US tradition marking the unofficial start of summer.   

Second among the Democratic choices was New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, followed by former Vice President Al Gore, who has said he has no plans to run for president, and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.   

"Likability matters. Americans tend to want a president who is approachable," said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.   

"This is a way of getting at the notion of genuineness," he said. "It's an index of curiosity."   

In a breakdown by political party affiliation, Giuliani was picked by 41 per cent of Republicans, 31 per cent of Democrats and 35 per cent of independents.   

Obama was the choice of 37 per cent of Republicans, 24 per cent of Democrats and 34 per cent of independent voters, it said.   

Quinnipiac polled 1,166 US voters from April 25 to May 1, and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points. The poll marked the first time Quinnipiac has asked such a question, Brown said.