Welcome to Week Two of The Right’s Field’s Power Line rankings of the Republican field. New to the poll this week is Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, who finally formed a Presidential Exploratory Committee. FYI – last week’s rankings are in parentheses
1. John McCain (1) - McCain had a rough week. He was trashed in a poll of right wing bloggers and the media is picking up the “McCain has a problem with his temper” meme. On top of this, his unflinching support of escalation of the Iraq war distances him even further from mainstream America and, increasingly, the Republican base. Then again, we don’t call him “Presumptive Nominee John McCain” for nothing and it will take more than one bad week to move McCain out of the top slot.
2. Rudy Giuliani (2) – Giuliani had a great week. He did well in the blogger poll and got good press for his visit to New Hampshire, as well as his slow rolling of his campaign launch.
3. Mitt Romney (3) – A bit of a bland week for Romney. He did well in the blogger poll too, but to paraphrase Erick Erickson, certainly does suck.
4. Sam Brownback (5) – Brownback’s biggest problem is name recognition. I’m getting the impression that he’s one of the most ideologically acceptable candidates for the Republican base, particularly the informed Republican base.
5. Mike Huckabee (NR) – Huckabee’s entrance puts him right in the middle of the second tier of candidates. He, like Brownback, can appeal to religious voters and will make a strong play as a movement candidate. His resume makes him the conservative’s choice if they want a governor as their candidate. He has a long way to go, as his Hope for America PAC’s fundraising numbers are pretty miserable. I’ll be curious to see if Huckabee can actually raise money as a candidate – if he can’t, this will probably be the high water mark for his campaign in this ranking.
6. Tommy Thompson (4) - Last week I said Thompson could be a sleeper candidate. Well, it looks like he’s not sleeping as much – we found out via the National Journal this week that Thompson has ” begun to schedule some fundraisers and another Iowa trip.” Maybe we’ll actually start hearing some news out of the Thompson campaign. For what it’s worth, Thompson’s high placing in last weeks poll was based primarily on two factors: the Saturday announcement of Brownback’s candidacy not really impacting the news cycle and the absence of candidacies from Huckabee, Hagel, and Gingrich.
7. Duncan Hunter (8) - Hunter is no longer just an anti-immigration candidate. He’s now an anti-immigration, anti-abortion candidate! Hunter pledged to reverse Roe v Wade at the March for Life on Monday. Of course, beyond that, Hunter’s week was lousy. He announced for president and no one noticed. His victory in the Maricopa County (AZ) straw poll was rebutted by two real polls. And he makes Sam Brownback look electable.
8. Tom Tancredo (7) - About an equal number of Republican bloggers love and hate Tancredo, which is about the most I can say about someone who, despite another seven days in Congress, remains batshit crazy.
9. Ron Paul (9) – Ron Paul is a libertarian. I don’t have a problem with libertarians, but I think the Republican base will. Paul’s active on MySpace and Facebook, something John McCain’s supporters might be jealous of, but I don’t think anyone is going to get too worried about Paul’s move to corner the social networking vote.
10. John H. Cox (10) – John H. Cox has a posse.
11. James Gilmore (7) – I realized that Jim Gilmore hasn’t done a damned thing since he announced for president. At least Cox and Paul have some support online, though Paul, like Gilmore, has no website.
Newt Gingrich, George Pataki, and Chuck Hagel were not included in this ranking because they have neither announced their candidacy nor formed presidential exploratory committees.
6 Responses to “TRF Power Line, Week 2”
Colton, want to increase Cox’s visibility? Outreach to the blogs. I am sure we can come up with some questions we’d like to hear him speak about.
Tell me how you would like to do this interview and I will make it happen.
You can Email me.
Colton
Proud Leader of The Cox 2008 Posse!
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[...] The Cox camp also allege a concerted effort by the media to exclude Cox from the discussion. Now, this is a judgment call on the part of the press but it is hard to say they got it wrong on this one. Our resident “proud leader of the Cox posse” here at The Right’s Field, Colton Henson, feverishly gives us updates in the comments, noting supporters in over two dozen states. There may be a story in how Cox has built his ‘national’ support structure without major donors. (Self-financed?) But to suggest that Cox’s candidacy would be a serious threat even if he did have relatively equal press to second- or third-tier candidates is just foolish. [...]
[...] on the part of the press but it is hard to say they got it wrong on this one. Our resident “proud leader of the Cox posse” here at The Right’s Field, Colton Henson, feverishly gives us updates in the comments, [...]
Something to say?
Give John Cox a break and move him to 9!
He has a website.
He has organizations in 37 states.
He has offices up and running in Iowa, NH and SC.
Who knows he probably have more campaign funds as well.
-Colton
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Left by Colton
January 30, 2007 at 4:36pm