Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Presidential Power Rankings # 34

August 22, 2007

Democrats:

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


No changes this week again. Boring, boring, boring, despite the fact that they are going after each other a lot more and using their wives to attack Hillary.

For his part, John Edwards must have fallen asleep when he went to go see SiCko because he is not sure that Cuba has a state run health care system.


Republicans:

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

I very much enjoyed taking part in the first ever Illinois Republican Straw Poll while making a trip to the State Fair in Springfield last Thursday and was very happy to cast a vote for Mitt Romney, en route to seeing him win a surprising landslide victory.

But I also certainly noticed at that outing, that while Ron Paul does not have a prayer of winning the GOP nomination (and may in fact be defeated in a Congressional primary in his home district next year), he definitely has an army of colorful characters who seem to view him as some sort of Savior. But based on that grassroots enthusiasm, I have to move him up a spot ahead of Tancredo and it is conceivable that he could overtake Brownback. I think he will last longer in the race for instance.

Also, this is certainly not the case among the general public, but when it comes to grassroots GOP support, Mike Huckabee may eventually overtake John McCain.