Sunday, January 07, 2007

US Presidential election

Speculation about who'll be the leading candidates for both the Dems and the GOP will intensify over the next 6 months. I'm picking that McCain and Edwards will be amongst the final few in the lead up to the primaries - both are infinitely preferable to the incumbent.

I'd not heard of Edwards until he pulled out of the Democratic race last time. He looks pretty impressive to me. Here's a link to a couple of recent interviews (in the first, it appears he believes McCain will get the nod from the GOP).

12 comments:

crasster said...

I agree. I think the Obama and Clinton thing are well over-clocked. Edwards has the look and feel. McCain helps balance the GOP's Iraq weakness (without having a namby pamby instead).

Chris said...

A McCain/Edwards race would certainly be an interesting one. A liberal republican and a southern democrat. It would certainly re-arrange the electoral map and put a few different states into play.

I went to the US for the last few weeks of the 2004 campaign and was far more impressed by Edwards than Kerry. I got the feeling that his primary campaign started to get momentum just a few weeks too late, otherwise he would have been the nominee and would have had a better chance of beating Bush than Kerry did.

Chris said...

Found this interesting site: http://www.politics1.com/p2008.htm

It lists the possible candidates, and more interestingly, those who have ruled themselves out. The short bio/comments about Gore are interesting. If Clinton doesn't run, I'd still keep my eye on him.

backin15 said...

Some people I know in Australia used to work pretty close to the Clintons in the last administration and have said that although most of her close advisers (think they) know she can't win, they've not told her and she doesn't (know she can't win that is).

Cheezy said...

No mention of Condi Rice here, either as Pres or Vice? As National Security Advisor she presided over the worst security failure in American history and she has also been an outspoken supporter of the most ruinous American foreign intervention since Vietnam... and she still gets incredibly high personal approval ratings. Money can't buy that sort of teflon coating.

If I was a GOP supporter, I'd (a) go and get my head read, and (b) be hoping for a McCain victory. And hoping his opponent doesn't imply that his years as a POW sent him mad, and that his progeny may be ethnically impure, as happened during the 2000 primaries.

backin15 said...

Good point re Rice. I can't see the GOP giving her the nod for Pres but VP's gotta be an option.

I remember the slurs against McCain in 2000. Bush's team can play very dirty despite all their Christian rhetoric. At least with his party girls twinset, the Bush dynasty may end?

crasster said...

Backin15: "At least with his party girls twinset, the Bush dynasty may end?"...ummmm...George W's brother is a State Governor and, allegedly, harboured presidential aspirations.

backin15 said...

Yeah but without a Governorship, what's he got to leverage?

Chris said...

Jeb Bush has ruled out running for President (some time ago), but then US politicians are subject to regular changes in their plans!

I think there is a good chance that a woman will end up somewhere on one of the tickets (most likely are Clinton and Rice), but you are right that they are unlikely to be in the top spots.

I still think the fact that Clinton is the 'favourite' at the moment makes it unlikely she will make it through (look at Dean last time around).

Anonymous said...

Never make the mistake of thinking McCain is a liberal.

The man represents Goldwater's State.

He's unorthodox, in a GOP establishment sort of way, but not a liberal.

backin15 said...

jfc, I don't mind an ol'fashion conservative, particularly when the alternatives are fundy-Christian reactionaries.

Chris said...

I guess I meant liberal in a relative sense. You are right he is certainly unorthodox!