Hillary now supports faith based initiatives...

[Partha]

Jeb Bush has currently said he wants no part of 2008. I personally think he's smart - if the next 4 years are the disaster the first 4 were, he wants no part of being tied to that.

My short list?

Giuliani
Frist
Rice
Hastert

Once again, in that order.

[Ddrak]

Clinton vs Rice would be awesome to see. Rednecks everywhere explode~

Dd

[Burz]

Highly doubt Hastert would run.

[Relbeek Einre]

Giuliani may have that cancer thing against him.

[Partha]

Giuliani has more than that against him. Remember the position he was in prior to 9/11.

However, in 2008, all the candidates have easily picked apart flaws.

[Embar Angylwrath]

Sounds like you guys are talking about the next WWF match... sheesh.

[Eidolon Faer]

Sigh.

All these gyrations Hillary is undertaking, combined with the recent slash job on Dean's candidacy for the DNC chairmanship, tell me that HILLARY certainly believes she's a viable candidate for the 2008 nomination, regardless of what anyone else thinks.

And I wouldn't put it past her to start bumping off the people ahead of her on that list of Partha's, either. It worked pretty well on Howard Dean, after all...and she has four whole years to work on the problem.

[Partha]

The slash job on Dean's DNC campaign is at best tangental to Hillary. The true fact of the matter appears to be that if Dean is in, a whole lot of consultants are out of jobs, political influence, and monetary gain. They are fighting to protect what they get, win or lose.

[Embar Angylwrath]

The slash job on Dean's DNC campaign is at best tangental to Hillary. The true fact of the matter appears to be that if Dean is in, a whole lot of consultants are out of jobs, political influence, and monetary gain. They are fighting to protect what they get, win or lose.

Are you saying then that, at least with the DNC, the tail is wagging the dog?

[Partha]

Not really. The consultants are very good at what they do, which is raising corporate money and losing national elections. Oh, and collecting a nice paycheck when they do it. They don't want to lose those jobs, but after their performance of the last two election cycles, they are bound to if they get anyone of a 'reformist' nature in there. Why do you think now that right of center Dems like Roemer and Frost have been pronounced DOA that there is a push to bring back McCauliffe, who's 0 for?

[Ddrak]

On the current nominees, the betting man's predictions are:

Contract Last Sale
 2008REP.NOM.MCCAIN 21.5
 2008REP.NOM.GIULIANI 17.1
 2008REP.NOM.POWELL 3.3
 2008REP.NOM.FRIST 15.1
 2008REP.NOM.OWENS 13.1
 2008REP.NOM.JBUSH 10.1
 2008REP.NOM.ALLEN 5.1
 2008REP.NOM.PATAKI 1.5
 2008REP.NOM.ROMNEY 8.2
 2008REP.NOM.RIDGE 1.6
 2008REP.NOM.CHENEY 0.9
 2008REP.NOM.THOMPSON 0.5
 2008REP.NOM.HAGEL 2.3
 2008REP.NOM.RICE 3.8
 2008REP.NOM.SCHWARZ 1.5
 2008REP.NOM.BARBOUR 0.6
 2008REP.NOM.SANTORUM 1.2
 2008REP.NOM.DOLE 0.5
 2008REP.NOM.BLOMBERG 0.5
 2008REP.NOM.GRAHAM 0.8
 2008REP.NOM.BROWNBCK 1.6
 2008REP.NOM.FRANKS 0.9
 2008DEM.NOM.CLINTON 31.8
 2008DEM.NOM.KERRY 7.1
 2008DEM.NOM.GORE 6.3
 2008DEM.NOM.RICHRDSN 7.5
 2008DEM.NOM.DEAN 3.3
 2008DEM.NOM.EDWARDS 7.5
 2008DEM.NOM.CLARK 2.7
 2008DEM.NOM.LIEBRMAN 0.2
 DEM2008.NOM.FEINGOLD 2.1
 2008DEM.NOM.BAYH 10.2
 2008DEM.NOM.OBAMA 2.4
 2008DEM.NOM.LEAHY 0.8
 2008DEM.NOM.DODD 3.2
 2008DEM.NOM.VILSACK 3.6
 2008DEM.NOM.BIDEN 6.7
 2008DEM.NOM.FORD 0.4
 2008DEM.NOM.RENDELL 4.6
 2008DEM.NOM.POWELL 0.5
 2008DEM.NOM.WARNER 7.6
 PRESIDENT.REP2008 48.8
 PRESIDENT.DEM2008 51
 PRESIDENT.FIELD2008 1

[Eidolon Faer]

Interesting.

Looks like the bookies must be evil right-wing meanies. They're siding with me on who the Dem nominee looks to be in 2008.

McCain / Rice vs Clinton / Edwards in 2008? Any takers?

[Embar Angylwrath]

And the fracturing begins...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... =printable

Already the DNC is starting to splinter over who is going to head the organization. Watch that carry through to the presidential election in 2008.

[Partha]

I watch this a bit closer than you do, Embar - the key here is to determine who the serious candidates are and who's backing them.

Leland, Fowler, and Webb are ciphers, like a Moseley-Braun in a Presidential run. Roemer only gets credibility based off of Clinton support - in reality, a candidate who runs with the Republicans on Social Security and abortion law is dead in the water. Frost is a dark horse, with his candidacy being hurt by the amount of distance he put between himself and the Democratic Party during his race. (Hint for the future: Placing your picture next to George Bush and saying 'agrees with...' or some variation three times in a commercial is NOT going to get you a Democratic Party power position.) Rosenberg has credentials, but he also suffers from the 'reform' label that the current powerbrokers hate in the Dem Party. Dean is the frontrunner, no two ways around it.

Interesting note: At that meeting, public who walked in were given 18 seconds to push one candidate. Of the several dozen who spoke, exactly TWO endorsed someone other than Dean.

[Sindarre]

Looks like the Republicans for Dean campaign is not as dead as I thought

[Aabe]

Ya know whats funny about this Hillary thing. If she becomes president and follows in Bill's tracks. She will be the one that will get Faith Based education on the books.

[Relbeek Einre]

And the USSC will remove it. It's blatantly unconstitutional.

[Aabe]

You hope! LOL..

[Relbeek Einre]

Yes, I do. I hope the USSC respects the law of the land.

[vaulos]

How do you figure that it is against the Constitution? For the first 200 years of this country it has been allowed, and we haven't had an amendment declaring otherwise. Seems to me that overruling it without an amendment would be "disrespecting" the law of the land.