Decision ‘08

The Most and Least Wanted Candidates

John Hawkins at Right Wing News polled 200+ bloggers (but not yours truly - should I be insulted?) on their most and least wanted 2008 Republican nominees. You can see the results here, but since I wasn’t asked, I’ll share my thoughts on the question (shrewd readers will notice I’m adopting the John Kerry approach here).

Most Wanted (I’m not putting mine in order - it’s a bit too early for that - just listing the top five in each category):

Rudy Giuliani
John McCain
Mike Huckabee
Condoleezza Rice
Mark Sanford

Least Wanted:

Chuck Hagel (that one is in order!)
Newt Gingrich
Bill Frist
Rick Santorum
Tom Tancredo

Note that my lists are not only personal preferences, but realistic assessments of ‘electability’. Thus, while, for example, Newt Gingrich is a very smart, capable person, he has less of a chance than my beagle of winning the general election…

UPDATE 3:06 p.m.: Ryan James, who’s got a nice new redesign, weighs in with his top and bottom 5…

8 Responses to “The Most and Least Wanted Candidates”

1 Mussolini Says:
January 23rd, 2006 at 2:34 pm
Ugh. McCain is such a political media-whore. He’ll do or say anything to get elected, and he runs dirty campaigns just like everyone else.

For some reason, we’re all falling for the idiotic media concept that “moderate” really means sane. But to the media, moderate is really only the “ability” to be wind-driven by the polls. How sad. So we all toddle along like lemmings chirping parakeet-style that only a moderate can unite America. What a utopian, pot-smoking fantasy.

The only difference between the left and the right are abortion and taxes. Otherwise, they are sickeningly identical.

Where are the heroes?
2 ryanVOX » 2008 Most (and Least) Wanted Says:
January 23rd, 2006 at 3:56 pm
[…] With a hat tip to BSR and Mark Coffey, I ran across a new Republican Candidate preference poll sponsored by John Hawkins at Right Wing News. Right Wing News emailed more than 230 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a ranked list 1-5 of the candidates that they would most like to take the Republican nomination for President in 2008 and the 1-5 candidates they’d least like to see as the Republican nominee in 2008. […]
3 Aaron Says:
January 23rd, 2006 at 5:03 pm
What about George Allen? I usualy hear his name tossed around at least as much as Mark Sanford’s, if not more so.
4 Jojo Says:
January 23rd, 2006 at 5:04 pm
I don’t know, I like Gingrich, I think his election chances are alright. He’s a proven leader and a proven winner of votes; he’s also a proven loser of votes, but let bygones be bygones.
5 politicaster Says:
January 23rd, 2006 at 11:50 pm
Seems like a pretty fair list Mark. As a swing voter, here’s my short take on whether I’d vote for them:

Rudy Giuliani: maybe
John McCain: yes
Mike Huckabee: possibly…need to hear more
Condoleezza Rice: probably
Mark Sanford: don’t know anything about him

Chuck Hagel: probably not
Newt Gingrich: hard to say…
Bill Frist: probably not
Rick Santorum: probably not
Tom Tancredo: don’t know enough

Of course a lot of this would depend on who the Dems put up. And right now the choices are looking pretty slim. Let’s just say that Giuliani, Rice, McCain, and possibly Huckabee would easily get my vote against Hillary. But if the Republican’s put up some of the latter 5, I might pick Hillary, this being the case of who do I dislike least. Arghh, it’s hard for me to say that. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
6 Charlie Says:
January 26th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
Mussolini,

In terms of McCain being a media whore, I ask you to look back about three months or so when John Murtha made his trumped-up anti-war speech. McCain, at the time, made a speech at the American Enterprise Institute calling for more troops in Iraq. Hardly the media / polls whore to take the polar opposite of a position that had its peak popularity in the media at the time.

Moderate does not mean that one enslaves oneself to the polls, but rather that one recognizes that no political ideology or party has all the right answers. The true statesmen pick those policies that work best from seperate ideologies, rather than being at the end of a partisan chain.

That’s not to say I don’t disagree with McCain on some issues, however, I respect him as one of the few individuals in US politics willing to stand up for principles that he believes are right, rather than those aimed towards short-term political gain.
7 Charlie Says:
February 19th, 2006 at 6:53 pm
They should have consulted you for the listings, this is a great blog. I have to respectfully disagree about a run from Senator Hagel, though. Why the strong disapproval of the Senator? He has a strong conservative voting record and he has experience on national security issues (something that many of the potential candidates lack).

http://hagel2008.blogspot.com/
8 Jonix Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 12:13 pm
I disagree with McCain in some issues, but he’s one of a kind in the class-field of politicians. A one of a kind.