On the right, Huckabee’s star rises while Guiliani’s fades. On the left Obama steals a march on Mrs. Experience.
In the Washington Post, Peter Beinart explains why. It has everything to do with the fact that the war in Iraq appears to actually be going rather well, and has thus become non-newsworthy.
All of this would have been hard to predict six months ago. It’ll be interesting to see where we are by Spring.
(In the interest of full disclosure, it’s probably worth mentioning that Beinart was the pro-Iraq war editor of The New Republic, replaced by the hapless Franklin Foer when the news magazine’s editorial stance changed. Along with their editorial standards, it seems.)
As someone who lived in Arkansas for 25 years, I’d caution both parties never to vote for an Arkansas politician for president.
I think Huckabee would be a good VP, and given his record could be for either party. Clinton, well, the name has so many meanings…
Ron Paul baby. He is getting the cash but will that move him in polls?
Heh,
Ron Paul, the GOP’s version of Dennis Kucinich.
respects,
DEfeatocrat experience?
Hildabeast – Lawyer, First Lady, Senator with no major legislation submitted nor passed.
Barry – Lawyer, Senator w/3 years OJT.
Breck Girl – Slimy, ambulance chasing lawyer, 1 term Senator.
Am I missing something here?
Another interesting point, all are sitting US Senators. The last Senator to jump directly from the Senate to the White House was Kennedy, and none of these quite have that whole Camelot thing going on. You have to go back to Harding in 1921 for a repeat.
Compare against the number of governors who have left their state mansions for the White House. Carter, Clinton, G.W. Bush, and to some extent Nixon as well.
Not saying history will repeat itself, but being in the Senate doesn’t seem to equate to experience in the mind of the American voter. The match-up of Bob Dole vs. Bill Clinton is but one example where years of Senatorial experience and vast name recognition across the nation wasn’t enough to overcome a personable governor.
– Max
As someone who lived in Arkansas for 25 years, I’d caution both parties never to vote for an Arkansas politician for president.
My mother had a business convention in Little Rock shortly after the ‘92 election. She was surprised to find when she mentioned to locals how proud they must be of Clinton she usually got statements along the line of “We can’t believe y’all fell for it!” The more garrulous would go on to tell 1st and 2nd-degrees of separation stories of rude/shady dealings regarding the Clintons, with the caveat that they weren’t any different than the rest of the scoundrels “governing” Arkansas.
[hit return too soon] Though she didn’t vote for Clinton, she had good hopes for him. That Arkansas trip left her much less optimistic.