The 2008 presidential candidate field is rounding out nicely for the Grand Old Party.

With about a year and four months to go the first votes are cast in the Iowa Caucuses and the New Hampshire Primary, three individuals with national stature have gathered the most attention:

• Tom Tancredo currently has 25% of the mock vote, and he's been shunned by the GOP. Perhaps the GOP should wake up, and get behind Tancredo, because he's going to expose the other candidates as the Democrats that they are!They didn't, and apparently they are Republicans after all.
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• Mike Huckabee

was Southern religious conservatives' darling, but he faded out of the race.

• Ron Paul is a 10-term congressman from Texas who has always voted against tax increases. Dr. Paul is the only conservative candidate who will follow the Constitution and dramatically reduce taxes and spending. He has won online polls on CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC after the GOP debates, but has more ground to gain to win the nomination. The Internet community loves this guy. Nonetheless, he wound up losing the nomination to...
  
  
• John McCain, who is the only candidate mentioned for a White House race in 2008, who has run before. His bid in 2000 against Texas Governor George W. Bush showed strengths (he won in New Hampshire) and weaknesses (he failed to consolidate the conservative base of the party). He is considered by many to be a prominent national politician and has rare political integrity that carries over from his military service in Vietnam.Even if he flip-flops and has some inconsistencies, registered Republicans liked him enough to nominate him.

• Rudolph Giuliani, former prosecutor and mayor of New York, also has strong national security credentials. But can Rudy parlay his incredible popularity stemming from his grace under fire during and after the 9-11 World Trade Center attacks into votes in the GOP primaries? The answer is no. That was called correctly, perhaps unfortunately. This is a Saturday Night Live sketch waiting to happen.

• Condoleezza Rice remains a wild card in this trio. Serving as National Security Adviser to the President and now Secretary of State, her foreign policy appeal will ride with the fortunes of the Bush Administration. But if McCain, Giuliani, or others stumble, there's a vocal "draft Conde" movement in the wings that is prepared to get her on primary ballots and turn out in caucus states. Bottom line, however, is that she has never been elected to a public office. Will America elect her? Maybe as dog catcher, but not Prez. Thumbs way down on Conde.

• Governor Mitt Romney has won election in the bluest of blue states. He's a Mormon and his greatest achievement to date has been organizing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (but we won't mention the graft and sexual favors that were being passed around during the securing of those games. Don't believe it -- Google it on the 'Net.). Early geography may favor the governor of New Hampshire's neighbor to the south. If people think an obscure Northeastern governor can't emerge as a national presidential candidate, think back four years to a guy named Howard Dean...Some currently consider him a veep candidate.

• Former Senator Fred Thompson Tennessee. Conservative in vote and verbal philosophies. See his page here. Making enroads and going up in the polls as his fundraising activities are in full swing. See his political site here: Fred08.com - About Fred

The other GOP hopefuls come from the Senate: Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee, who will not seek re-election to his Senate seat, and Virginia's George Allen. It is almost inconceivable Bill Frist will be running but then stranger things have happened. There seems to be not impetus to forward his name to the field.

But wait, let's not forget about Newt! He will be announcing in about two weeks if he is going to run.

UPDATE: Bill Frist and Newt Gingrich are not running.


See also

• Candidate Bios
• Electoral Results
• Opinion Polls
• Rumors