I had the honor of sitting in on a blogger’s conference call today with representatives of Team Giuliani which included Director of Strategy Brent Seaborn, Lead Pollster Ed Geoas, and Deputy Communications Director Maria Comella.

The highlights:

1. Since Rudy has made it clear that he is “100% committed” to running, doubters have changed their theme from “Rudy won’t run” to “Once GOP’ers find out about Rudy’s social views they will change their mind”. This is contradicted by polling which shows that Hizzoner’s main base of support is from self-identified “conservative” and “very conservative voters” of which half to two-thirds correctly identify Rudy as a social moderate.

2. An underreported statistic from the most recent Gallup Poll is the favorable/unfavorable ratings of the various 2008 candidates is Rudy’s amazing 78% to 10% rating among Republicans, 34% of which (half of the total favorables) “strongly” support Hizzoner.

3. Polling suggests that there is a strong awareness of Rudy as “center-left” on social issues and “center-right” on fiscal issues. Hizzoner’s strong support among self-identified “conservative” and “very conservative” voters suggest that the prosecution of the GWOT may have surpassed social issues in the minds of many of these voters. The specter of President Hillary Rodham Clinton may also be a small factor as well.

4. Is polling regarding the 2008 election “soft” at this point? There is much to suggest that voters in both parties are much more attuned to the forthcoming election than they were in 2000 & 2004, including perhaps even the Democratic base prior to the 2004 election.

Some very interesting points… My overall impression was that although the Giuliani campaign is pleased with Rudy’s current standing in the polls, they are not content to simply ride out the numbers until the voting begins, but are focused on working hard to communicate Hizzoner’s shared conservative beliefs and accomplishments with Republican voters.