Presidential Power Rankings # 23

June 6, 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 (6)
7. Chris Dodd (7)
8. Dennis Kucinich (8)
9. Mike Gravel (9)
10. Wesley Clark (10)


No changes this week again for the Democrats. We are seeing a flurry of polls, in both parties, both nation-wide, and in the key early states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

You just never know what to expect as those polls come out. The new Gallup one has Obama tied with Hillary nationally while others from Iowa will show either Edwards is up soundly or Hillary is ahead and there can be as large as 30 point discrepencies of some polls in the same state.

The most recent debate from New Hampshire definitely solidified the status of the top three contenders. Based on all factors, one could try to make the case that Hillary should either be #1 or #2, Obama could be either 1, 2 or 3, and Edwards can be 2 or 3. Thus, it makes the most sense to keep things where they are.

I guess time will tell whether someone like John Edwards is truly making a strong push for #2 or falling deeper and deeper into a #3 hole (which is sort of more what I expect to happen.)

Republicans:

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

More polls galore and another debate show that the top four are pretty much all major contenders for the nomination and the race is quite fluid.

Mitt Romney continues to average a lead in both Iowa and New Hampshire and a couple new polls show him starting to maybe make a bit of a modest stand in South Carolina.

Giuliani had a very good third debate in New Hampshire last night and still leads most national polls.

There is a great deal of buzz in political circles and what shows up in many national polls around Fred Thompson's now almost certain enterance into the race and while it may not last at all, the buzz probably has to be enough to at least temporarily knock John McCain down to third place, as McCain is definitely feeling some heat over his immigration proposal before the United States Senate.

Fred Thompson may eventually fizzle as a candidate or he could move up into # 1 or # 2.

The big news today is that John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are both opting out of the Ames Straw poll, which seems to show that they viewed a Romney win there as inevitable and wanted to do what they could to prevent that from being as big of a story possible if they, Fred Thompson, or Newt Gingrich were also competing.

All four of the top candidates in the power rankings may very well wind up as the Republican nominee and it is going to be a very interesting eight months until the voting gets under way.