Presidential Power Rankings # 10

March 7, 2007

Democrats:

1. Hillary Rodham Clinton (1)
2. Barack Obama (2)
3. John Edwards (3)
4. Al Gore (4)
5. Bill Richardson (5)
6. Joe Biden (7)
7. Chris Dodd (6)
8. Dennis Kucinich (8)
9. Al Sharpton (10)
10. Mike Gravel (new)

A couple changes for the Donkeys this week on the margins of irrelevancy. While Chris Dodd won a minor straw poll in one South Carolina country, Joe Biden did manage to pick up the endorsement of several prominent figures in the South Carolina African-American community. The support of these figures were said to be crucial in John Edwards’ successful primary campaign in the Palmetto State four years ago, but they are now, along with many trial lawyers, chosen Biden over Edwards. Thus, Biden, whose campaign looked like it might have been over as soon as it begun, has managed to leapfrog Chris Dodd, which ironically enough sounds like something that Dodd might have experienced back in the days when he and Ted Kennedy were quite the bachelors around town in Washington.

Also, based on some comments he made, it now seems extremely unlikely that Wes Clark will enter the race for the Presidency. He probably is just focused on having Hillary pick him as her running mate. Therefore, I am dropping him from the rankings and putting long-since announced gadfly former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel (rhymes with Patti LaBelle) back on the list.

Republicans:

1. Rudy Giuliani (3)
2. Mitt Romney (2)
3. John McCain (1)
4. Mike Huckabee (4)
5. Sam Brownback (5)
6. Newt Gingrich (6)
7. Duncan Hunter (8)
8. Tommy Thompson (7)
9. Jim Gilmore (9)
10. Chuck Hagel (10)

Perhaps some more controversy on the GOP side, where I am now conceding that based on a variety of factors, Rudy Giuliani is now the party’s frontrunner. The campaign of John McCain, while certainly remaining extremely viable, has appeared to be struggling. It is a tough call to rank McCain second or third at this point, but Mitt Romney’s victory in the CPAC straw poll, and the fact that McCain and Giuliani appear likely to split the same pool of voters, justifies leaving Romney, whom I believe will ultimately capture the nomination, in the number two spot.

The other change is that based on an impressive showing in the Spartanburg County, SC straw poll (which was very narrowly won by McCain), and perhaps a greater niche attraction among conservatives, I have moved Duncan Hunter up one spot over Tommy Thompson, who if he appeared at the influential CPAC conference, received no coverage that I am aware of.