Presidential Power Rankings # 50

December 12, 2007


Democrats:

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

No changes but the gap between number two and number one is as close as it has been all year.

Republicans:

1. Mitt Romney (2)
2. Rudy Giuliani(1)
3. Mike Huckabee (3)
4. John McCain (4)
5. Fred Thompson (5)
6. Ron Paul (6)
7. Tom Tancredo (7)
8. Duncan Hunter (9)
9. Alan Keyes (8)
10. John Cox (10)

Earlier, I spent a good deal of time discussing the dynamics of the GOP race on another blog,, so I do not really have the energy to go into great detail on these changes. Perhaps next week.

I have moved my preferred candidate Mitt Romney up to number one, despite the fact, that he may not win Iowa, which at one point was considered necessary for him to do. Expectations are just now so high for Huckabee in Iowa, that if Romney is able to rebound quickly in New Hampshire, he might be in the game in a strong position. Giuliani is taking some hits in national polls, which seem to be coming to the benefit of Huckabee, and in Iowa and New Hampshire polls as well. Giuliani may have created a monster in Huckabee, as far as having worked to prop him up in Iowa, and now that might be hurting Giuliani in multiple places. Still though, Giuliani is far more equipped to run a national campaign than Huckabee.

As for Romney, winning Iowa is certainly something they hope for, but even if he does not, he just needs to try to get into a one on one race with someone by February 5th. Whether that would be against Giuliani or Huckabee, Romney may be acceptable enough as the second choice of the backers of both of the other men and that could put him in a strong position as far as the big picture is concerned. I also believe that Romney helped himself with an inspirational and stirring speech on "Faith in America" last week.

The one other change I am making is that I am moving Duncan Hunter up a spot over Alan Keyes, because the Keyes Presidential campaign has been virtually invisible (and maybe that is a good thing.) Hunter has been included in all of the debates while Keyes is typically left out. Apparently, Keyes will take part in Wednesday afternoon's Des Moines Register debate with the all the other candidates, with the exception of John Cox, who seems to have gotten over his ambition to lose a Presidential contest and whom I believe has now basically stopped campaigning.

Overall, the GOP race certainly remains very fluid and fascinating and 2007 starts to wind down.