Thursday's Top 10 Political Blogs

The blogosphere's lit up with speculation about the ramifications of Pat Robertson endorsing Rudy Giuliani. Is this just the beginning of social conservatives starting to line up behind Giuliani? I can't imagine that would happen. It could cause internal dissension in many of the Christian conservative organizations. This is what happened to the Christian Coalition following scandals involving Ralph Reed and his ties to Jack Abramoff.

Republicans

Jim Geraghty has Gary Bauer's reaction to Pat Robertson's endorsement of Giuliani. It's amazing to see how splintered the social conservatives are on candidates -- it's a microcosm of the GOP itself.

The National Journal's Hotline also has two takes on the Robertson endorsement. It doesn't help Giuliani in the early states, which could be a problem. Giuliani might not win any primary until end of January with Florida.

Digby predicted in March that social conservatives would fall in line behind the winning candidate. He thinks the large groups are run by a bunch of phonies. Many social conservatives have organized around antiabortion issues. Will this hurt many big organizations if they support Giuliani?

Erick at Redstate.com has some advice for Fred Thompson, and Thompson needs it. He has to stop some of the bleeding and get some of the social conservatives to endorse him.

Democrats

Taylor Marsh looks at the soap opera the Democrats are running in Iowa. A new poll has Hillary Clinton in the lead, Barack Obama a close second and John Edwards tanking. Nobody can figure out why Edwards went negative, in particular because it doesn't play well in Iowa. Marsh has some juicy speculation about Edwards adviser Joe Trippi.