Wednesday, November 22, 2006

If I had to vote in the Democratic Primary today...

Have the 2006 elections affected your view of the 2008 presidential contenders? How would you rank order the potential (and some already announced) candidates?

Mine has changed since the last time I posted a list. Here are my ordinal level rankings:

1. Wes Clark
2. Evan Bayh
3. Joe Biden
4. John Edwards

5. Bill Richardson

6. Barack Obama
7. HRC
8. Tom Vilsack
9. Al Gore
10. John Kerry

My listing is largely based on my view of (a) can they win? and (b) can they govern? That is to say, it's probably heavy on personal characteristics and experience. But the rank ordering doesn't completely depend on those aspects. For instance, I suspect HRC would have the hardest time winning of the ten. But I think she'd be a better candidate than the three I ranked below her. Perhaps I'll develop an index along these lines, with ideology and other dimensions added to it. And as time goes on, I'll try to develop a policy platform.

How about a list of candidates you'd like to see enter the race but who have gone unmentioned?

Congress (past and present)
Governor (past and present)
Former administration official
Celebrity

Discuss, but try not to shoot anybody in the face.

1 comment:

DaveS said...

ooh, fascinating to see these new rankings! and wild to have clark on top! should be neat to see how things evolve over time, and esp. if some new name emerges!

i'm feeling the west and northwest folks these days, so i'll throw out to the list the gov. from montana schwitzer (probably mispelled - don't know too much about him but he sounds cool!) and our two lovely ladies from california, feinstein or boxer! probably super tough for either of em to win but wouln't it be wild to have the california ladies running the presidency and the house? yeah!