Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Presidential Power Rankings # 25

June 20, 2007

Democrats:

1. Hillary 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)

Can't really make the case for any changes, except I guess I will drop the Rodham from the frontrunner's name since she is not using it as part of her Presidential campaign. One could fill an entire blog with all the times she has added or subtracted to her last name over the years.

I enjoyed the Sopranos spoof that she and Bill did very much, but it was a very odd choice. I wish Ginny Sack would have been in the video too. Perhaps she could have shown her thong to the former President.

On another note, John Edwards is really starting to show some slippage in several places, including in Iowa. If Al Gore were to give any hint that he may get in the race, he would easily move up to number three.

Republicans:


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


It is a little tougher to rank the top GOP candidates, but the one change I have is moving Fred Thompson up ahead of Rudy Giuliani into the number two spot.

The national polls for the former Senator from Tennessee are looking pretty good for an unannounced candidate and he has improved his standing in some of the early key states as well.

Rudy Giuliani continues to lead in most national polls but yesterday, he lost his main guy in Iowa to the White House and his main guy in South Carolina to a federal drug indictment. Not the best day for a Presidential candidate to say the least! I think the fact that Jim Nussle is leaving the Iowa campaign, on the heels of the straw poll pullout might very well indicate that Giuliani will eventually decide to sit out Iowa all together and perhaps the other earliest states, as he focuses on large population ones.

It may not be time to totally count John McCain, the former frontrunner nationally, and in all three of the first key states, but it may be getting to the point where he will have to reconsider if this is really what he wants to do. He is now in fourth place nationally, at least a distant second in New Hampshire (could be worse by now), and a distant fourth or worse, mired in the single digits, in polls out this week out of Iowa and South Carolina. In Iowa, he is even slightly behind Mike Huckabee and tied with Sam Brownback. McCain is in serious trouble right now and it might be owed to the immigration issue (which I happen to agree with him on.)

As for my candidate Mitt Romney, at this point, he is running no better than third nationally, has seen some slippage in those numbers over the past couple weeks, but still is in first place in both Iowa and New Hampshire. That is the most important thing. The fact that he is positioning himself to win both states, the first time that would ever be done by a Republican non-incumbent, makes him the most likely GOP candidate as of this week. He also has a lead in a new Nevada poll, which will also be voting early.

Ultimately, I think it might be likely that Romney, Giuliani, and Fred Thompson all spend time in the number one spot before 2007 is up.