Presidential Power Rankings # 20

May 16, 2007

Democrats:

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

No changes here, but feel free to use the comments to tell us your own John Edwards beauty shop joke.

Republicans:


1. John McCain (1)
2. Mitt Romney (2)
3. Rudy Giuliani (3)
4. Fred Thompson (4)
5. Mike Huckabee (5)
6. Newt Gingrich (9)
7. Sam Brownback (6)
8. Duncan Hunter(8)
9. Tommy Thompson (7)
10. Tom Tancredo (new)

Quite a few changes this week for the GOP, based primarily on last night’s Fox News debate in South Carolina.

Giuliani clearly had a better debate than his first one and his dust-up with Ron Paul may go down in political history as one of the reasons he will ultimately capture the GOP nomination, if indeed he does, but still, the hits that Giuliani is taking over abortion and the fact that McCain seems to be improving against him in some polls leads us to rank them 3 and 1 respectively again.

As for my guy Mitt Romney, he had another solid debate performance, although perhaps not quite as good as the first one. That may have more to do with some other candidates being better and Fox News seemingly having it out for him. However, the latest polls still show Romney ahead in New Hampshire, and new Zogby one out today shows that while McCain and Giuliani have both lost support in Iowa, Romney has kept gaining it and now actually has a slight 19-18-18 lead over the other two frontrunners.

Gingrich made comments this week that there is a good possibility that he will indeed run. I happen to be a little skeptical, but based on his name recognition and showing in polls as a non-candidate, that means I have to move him up.

Huckabee had a pretty good debate and probably helped himself the most out of any of the second tier candidates, while Tommy Thompson had another very poor debate and looks quite out of place on stage with the other candidates.

I am kicking Ron Paul off the power rankings though, not just because I disagree with him, but because his statements in the debate saying that our policies caused the attack on 9/11 is something that will anger about 99% of Republicans and relegates him to the fringe category. Giuliani should send him a check for allowing him to respond to such an outrageous statement the way he did. Even the semi-nutty Tom Tancredo got in the mix and went after his friend Paul, in a way that actually made Tancredo look statesman-like by comparison. So, Tancredo is on at number 10 and Paul is off the list, and there is nothing you Paul spammers who troll the internet day and night looking to talk him up and attack anyone who disagrees, can do about it.

But feel free to leave your comments as to why Ron Paul is the only decent person running for President or something like that. Let me know you are out there!