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Palin said she will continue to call on the Obama administration and the Democratic majority in Congress to protect "mom and pops' tax cuts from expiring at year's end.
She wrote, "Granted, liberals (including stubborn 'fact-checkers' who claim I'm lying about the soon-to-be tax cut expiration) are trying to clobber me for holding them accountable and prodding them toward revealing their intentions..."

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State Attorney General Henry McMaster trailed far behind Haley and Barrett (despite a last-minute endorsement by former New York mayor and presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani), as did Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who had to give up his office to run for governor.

The executive director of the powerful Republican Governors Association is sending a not-so-subtle message that Haley is the group's preferred choice, according to The New York Times. In a statement that does not mention her opponent, Nick Ayers said: "The voters of South Carolina made a clear choice in Nikki Haley, notwithstanding the possibility of a runoff. The outcome is all but certain. Nikki Haley withstood a barrage of inuendoes and slurs in the closing days of the primary season and persevered to the finish with dignity, determination and confidence. Moreover, receiving half of the votes against two other statewide incumbent Republicans and a sitting Congressman speaks volumes of her strength as a candidate and bodes very well for her in the General Election."

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State Sen. Vincent Sheheen won the Democratic nomination for governor, said The Associated Press, over state Education Superintendent Jim Rex and state Sen. Robert Ford. Sheheen was endorsed by Jim Hodges, the party's last governor.

Results

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A pair of polls out today differ on how well New York City Comptroller William Thompson Jr. would do if he challenges Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for the Democratic nomination, but at this point, neither is conclusive given how many voters haven't really focused on that possibility.

Thompson ran a surprisingly strong race against Mayor Michael Bloomberg, despite the millions of his own money Bloomberg poured into the mayoral contest. Thompson was reportedly considering a primary race against Gillibrand, who hails from upstate, and is expected to decide next month, according to the New York Times.

A Quinnipiac University poll conducted Dec. 7-13 had Thompson ahead of Gillibrand 41 percent to 28 percent with 28 percent undecided. A Siena Research Institute poll conducted Dec. 6-9 puts Gillibrand ahead of Thompson by 32 percent to 23 percent, but says more than a third had not decided on a candidate to support.

But both Democrats trail former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani in general election match-ups. In the Quinnipiac poll, Giuliani leads Gillibrand 50 percent to 40 percent with 8 percent undecided. The margin of error is 2.4 points for the general election match-up. Giuliani would get the votes of 92 percent of Republicans and 23 percent of Democrats. Gillibrand is supported by just 68 percent of Democrats. Independents favor Giuliani by 57 percent to 32 percent.

Giuliani leads Thompson 52 percent to 36 percent with 9 percent undecided. Again. Giuliani would siphon off 25 percent of Democratic votes, and leads among independents by 60 percent to 28 percent.

One of Gillibrand's problems still seems to be that she hasn't made great progress in getting New York voters to know her better since her appointment to the seat vacated by Hillary Clinton. Fifty-eight percent of voters say they don't know enough about her to express a favorable or unfavorable opinion. By contrast, Giuliani is seen favorably by 59 percent of voters and unfavorably by 32 percent with only 7 percent not knowing enough about him to express an opinion.

Siena's poll had similar results. Giuliani leads Gillibrand 49 percent to 42 percent. The margin of error is 3.8 points. He leads Thompson 56 percent to 34 percent.

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Thirty-nine percent of voters rate her job performance as "fair," 25 percent say it is excellent or good (only 3 percent say "excellent"), and 12 percent call it "poor," according to a Marist poll conducted Nov. 16-17. But the important number may be that 24 percent don't know enough about her to express an opinion. By contrast, only 4 percent of New Yorkers don't know enough about senior Sen. Charles Schumer to have an opinion.

Fellow Democrats have tried to help her raise her visibility. Last July, she was given a moment in the spotlight when she formally introduced then-Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor to the televised Senate Judiciary Committee hearings. But Gillibrand took a few too many moments and after about six minutes, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy cut her off.

A Marist poll released last week said that if former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani challenged her, he'd be leading 54 percent to 40 percent, with 6 percent undecided.

If former Gov. George Pataki were her opponent, Pataki would be leading 47 percent to 45 percent, with 8 percent undecided. The margin of error is 3.5 points.

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Giuliani would handily beat Gov. David Paterson, leading him by 60 percent to 35 percent with 5 percent undecided. But if Paterson fades away or loses in a Democratic primary against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Cuomo is on top by 53 percent to 43 percent with 4 percent undecided.

By contrast, matched against Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was named by Paterson to fill out Hillary Clinton's term when she became secretary of state, Giuliani leads 54 percent to 40 percent with 6 percent undecided.

Sixty-three percent of New York voters do not want to see Paterson run for re-election.

If Cuomo becomes the Democratic candidate for governor, he swamps the one announced GOP candidate, former Rep. Rick Lazio, leading him 69 percent to 24 percent.

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Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani wouldn't say on Sunday's talk shows whether he would run for governor in 2010, but if he did -- and faced Attorney General Andrew Cuomo -- he'd find himself trailing by 53 percent to 41 percent, according to a Siena Research Institute survey conducted Nov. 8-12. That margin for a match-up between the two is about the same as it has been since September.

If Gov. David Paterson stays in the race, as he insists he will, and gets the Democratic nomination to run again, he'd find himself trailing Giuliani, 56 percent to 33 percent. But the poll also found that if Paterson faced Cuomo in a primary, he'd lose by 75 percent to 16 percent. In a general election, even former Republican Rep. Rick Lazio leads Paterson, 42 percent to 39 percent. And that's with 50 percent of voters not knowing enough about Lazio to have an opinion of him.

The margin of error is 3.5 points.

The New York Times reports today that Cuomo is already thinking about who he would want to run with him on a statewide ticket if he makes his bid for thge governor's job.

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The partisan debate continued today over the Obama administration's decision to try the accused Sept. 11 conspirators in a civilian court in New York, with Republicans asserting they should face a military tribunal because the attacks were an act of war, while Democrats said the trial would demonstrate to the world the U.S. commitment to the rule of law.

"What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that both in substance and reality, the war on terror, from their point of view, is over. We're no longer going to treat these people as if this was an act of war," said former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on Fox News Sunday.

Giuliani, who appeared on three different talk shows, was reminded by his interviewers that he had praised the use of civilian trials for those who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993 and of Zacarias Moussawi, the so-called "20th hijacker" in the Sept. 11 attack, as examples of the strength of the American legal system.

"If there's no other alternative, I support civilian trials for terrorists," Giuliani responded. "The reality is there is another alternative here...He (President Obama) should bring them to justice in a military court. We spent six or seven years developing a constitutionally permissible military tribunal. He's satisfied with it. He's going to use it."

Giuliani was referring to the fact that while Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who has claimed credit for conceiving the Sept. 11 attacks, and four accused co-conspirators would face a criminal trial in New York under the decision announced Friday by Attorney General Eric Holder, five other Guantanamo detainees charged in the 2000 bombing of the Navy destroyer Cole in Yemen would face military tribunals.

Officials said that one of the factors in choosing a military tribunal for the second five was that their target was a military one.

Rep. Pete Hoekstra, ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, called the administration decision "ideology run wild."

"You can bet that folks that are going to be tried and their lawyers are going to try to use this opportunity to extend it as long as they can, because this is what they wanted," he said on CBS' Face the Nation. "They wanted center stage, and they're going to want to keep it for as long as they can. They will bring every motion forward that they can that will drag this trial out."

But Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Patrick Leahy strongly defended the administration decision, saying, "We have a judicial system that is the envy of the world. Let's show the world that we can use that power. We can use our judicial system, just as we did with Timothy McVeigh, and send the people -- and convict the people."

Leahy said he wasn't worried the sometimes theatric Mohammed would use the trial as a world stage. "I have a lot of faith in our judges, Leahy said, also on Face the Nation. "They know how to run a trial. They know how to keep decorum in their court. If Khalid Shaikh Mohammed wants to stand up and say, as he did in Guantanamo, I committed all these murders, I did all these things, fine. If I was a prosecutor, I would just sit there and let that jury hear it, because he's going to be convicted."

Leahy also said he believed the prosecution would be able to get a conviction despite the fact that some information was obtained from Mohammed after he was waterboarded numerous times.

"They indicted him long before this waterboarding," Leahy said. "They had evidence enough to bring indictments against him long before that...I have no question that they have enough evidence untainted by the waterboarding that will be admissible in court."

Leahy's fellow Democrat, Sen. Jack Reed, echoed many of those views on Fox News Sunday. "If we try him before military officers, that image of a soldier will be portrayed by the Islamic community," Reed said. "That's not the image we want...When the foreman of that jury stands up and delivers the verdict, not empowered by religious fanaticism, by -- but the Constitution, he will know he's lost."

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"If there's a racial issue in a matchup between Gov. David Paterson and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, these numbers don't show it. Black Democrats back Cuomo hands down, and black voters in general give Cuomo better grades than the Governor on every measure -- even in a race against [former] Mayor Rudolph Giuliani," said Quinnipiac's Maurice Carroll.

The poll basically confirms what other recent polls in New York have reported. If Giuliani faces off against Paterson in a general election, he leads 54 percent to 32 percent, but Cuomo beats Giuliani, 50-40. Paterson would run even with Republican Rep. Rick Lazio at 38 percent, while Cuomo would trounce Lazio, 61 percent to 22 percent.

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The gains are modest over his September numbers, and an oddity is that, when asked whether they prefer that Giuliani run for governor or senator, the biggest response from voters was the 43 percent who said they didn't want him to run for either, while 32 percent favored a race for governor and 21 percent for senator.

Giuliani would beat incumbent Gov. David Paterson, 56 percent to 33 percent with 11 percent undecided, if the race were held today, compared to a 52-35 margin last month. If Attorney General Cuomo were the Democratic candidate, Cuomo leads Giuliani by 50 percent to 43 percent with 6 percent undecided, compared to 52-39 last month.

Forty-nine percent say they'd like to see Cuomo run for governor, setting up a primary against Paterson, while 36 percent prefer that he seek re-election to his current job. The poll said Cuomo would beat Paterson by 70 percent to 20 percent if he ran.

Matched against Gillibrand for Senate, Giuliani leads 53 percent to 36 percent with 10 percent undecided, up from 46 percent to 38 percent last month. If former Republican Gov. George Pataki ran against Gillibrand, he'd win, 46 percent to 41 percent with 13 percent undecided. The margin of error for the poll was 3.9 points.

Former Republican Rep. Rick Lazio, who announced his candidacy for governor last month, doesn't fare well. As unpopular as Paterson is, he leads Lazio, 39 percent to 37 percent with 23 percent undecided -- within the margin of error but a much worse showing than the better-known Giuliani. Cuomo would bury Lazio by 66 percent to 21 percent with 14 percent undecided.

We've saved New Yorkers' verdict on Paterson till last because the story remains unchanged for the ninth consecutive month: His favorability rating is below 40 percent and his job approval rating is below 25 percent.

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While nearly two-thirds of New Yorkers in both parties don't want Gov. David Paterson to run again next year, they did not like President Obama's attempt to meddle in state politics, saying by 62 percent to 27 percent that the White House was wrong to urge him to drop out, according to a Marist Poll conducted Sept. 22.

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According to The New York Times, Giuliani sees parallels between the current political conditions in Albany -- the combination of the economic recession and public disapproval of Democratic Gov. David Paterson -- and those in New York City before his successful run for mayor in 1994.

"If I thought that I could make a real difference in the state, really change things and it really needed me, then I probably would do it," Giuliani said earlier this month when asked about running for governor.

He discussed his possible candidacy with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently. He has also been traveling around the state in recent weeks to meet with state GOP leaders to assess his support and the likelihood of reclaiming the governor's mansion for the Republicans, according to The Times.

Giuliani is the leading potential Republican candidate, according to a Rasmussen poll conducted earlier this month. Other possible GOP candidates include Rep. Peter T. King, who has said he would step aside if Giuliani got in the race, and former Rep. Rick Lazio, who is already campaigning and will formally announce his candidacy in the fall.

Lazio - whom I served as press secretary when he was in Congress -- responded to me in an e-mail. "New York is severely hampered by out of control spending and a rising tax burden that's crippling working families," he wrote.

"With a dysfunctional government on top of that, its even clearer that New York needs a leader who can help it to regain the title of Empire State once again. We need sweeping, systemic, fundamental change so New Yorkers can have the government they want and deserve."

In a general election, the poll showed Giuliani favored by more than 20 percent of voters over Paterson. If the opponent were Democratic Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Giuliani trails by seven points, 41 to 48 percent.

Giuliani's aides, however, say that his decision will not be influenced by Cuomo, who is not expected to decide about running until next year.

"Rudy never did worry who his opponent is. If he decides to run, it won't matter if Cuomo is the Democratic candidate," Guy V. Molinari, the former Staten Island borough president, told The Times after meeting with Giuliani two weeks ago to discuss a potential race.

While Giuliani mulls and flirts, Lazio has been running full-out for governor in a state in dire need of fresh ideas on the economic crisis, energy to tackle the multitude of issues in Albany and the confidence to declare his candidacy based on the needs of the people of the Empire State. Go Rick!

Follow Emily Miller on Twitter.

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