Giuliani Leads GOP Candidates in S.C.

U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., smiles with his wife Michelle at a rally on the University of Illinois-Chicago campus during the second day of a three-day presidential announcement trip through Illinois, Iowa, and New Hampshire. in Chicago, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007. Michelle's older brother Craig Robinson, 44, is first-year coach of the Brown University men's basketball team. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File) (Charles Rex Arbogast - AP)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- In a sign of what die-hard Republicans may think of the field of presidential contenders, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was leading 10 other candidates Thursday in a straw poll in conservative Spartanburg County.

With 81 of 92 precincts reporting, Giuliani garnered 158 votes. California Rep. Duncan Hunter was a close second with 152 votes, and Arizona Sen. John McCain was third with 116 votes, according to county GOP officials.

Kansas Sen. Sam Brownback had 83 votes, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 80 votes and Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee rounded out the front-runners with 21 votes.

The voting isn't binding and comes as the county party goes about the business of organizing precincts and ultimately sending people to its county convention and the state GOP convention in May.

People attending meetings starting at 7 p.m. could vote for one of 11 GOP candidates who have said they're running for the nomination or have set up exploratory committees.

Rick Beltram, the county's GOP chairman, said he expected fewer than 2,000 people to vote.

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) _ Once skeptical, Michelle Obama says she's now a believer in the ability of politicians and political institutions to affect change for the better.

Obama, a Harvard-trained lawyer, said she was initially wary of her husband, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, running for president _ not because she didn't think he'd make a great candidate, but because she wasn't sure that politics was the best way to bring about change.

"I'm one of the skeptics that Barack often talks about," Mrs. Obama said in a telephone interview this week. "Like most people, my view about politics _ and it's evolved, but it had been _ that politics is for dirty, nasty people who aren't trying to do much in the world."

While she regularly voted in elections and was engaged in community service, "I think that I had become cynical like many people," Mrs. Obama said.

But she stressed that her view had changed over time, becoming more optimistic.