Who woiuld be the toughest GOP Presidential opponent in '08

[Perky]

Just a gut check here.

Most people say its McCain. but I am not sure he is going to get the nomination. What do you say.

[Catchawave]

1. Other , and in my gut, two years out....

Mike Huckabee

[stevedeshazer]

2. You left out Duncan Hunter

Hey, he talks tough. ;)

[Perky]

4. Has a house member ever won the presidency?

[stevedeshazer]

12. Gerald Ford "won"

:hide:

[A-Schwarzenegger]

3. Colin Powell, if he ran.

[Perky]

6. wow Powell against Obama?????

[Boston Critic]

11. Powell is tainted

He lied us into war for Bush, and lied to save his job.

His subsequent apology is nice, but it doesn't make him presidential material.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

16. Naw, he'd be painted as the only guy in the Admin to have resisted,

asked questions, demanded intell proof, etc. Havent seen any poll
on his popularity, but I bet youd be surprised.

[Boston Critic]

18. And it wouldn't last in a general campaign

Any Democrat who didn't hang the war around Powell's neck shouldn't be running.

Powell disgraced himself. I don't care what he claims to have done behind the scenes. His lying to the UN forever removes him from serious consideration.

[NewJeffCT]

5. Hagel

He's strongly criticized the war for a long time now, so will not be weighted down with that albatross like McCain & Giuliani.

Plus, unlike Rudy & McCain, he has strong fundie credentials.

[Leilani]

9. Hagel has no constituency

Republicans think he's a McCain wanna be.

He won't run.

[TheFarseer]

24. He has strong fundie credentials? That's news to me

I'm not saying you are necessarily wrong, but I've never heard that. He is a straight up corporate-crat and he totally ignores his constituency.

[NewJeffCT]

29. I saw him rated

very highly by right-to-life groups and he had scored 100% with the Christian Coalition.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

7. I'm thinking Hagel.

McCain is the media darling, but his age and health will be problems, and the fundies still don't like him. Giuliani is too "liberal" for the loony base, while Brownback is too loony for anybody but the base. Thompson won't go anywhere. Romney is a Mormon, whom the fundies think are heathens. Allen is out of the running after being defeated by Webb. Of all of them, Hagel is the one that I think could be toughest to beat. He comes across as fairly sane, for a Republican, and he's been critical of the war. So let's watch out for Hagel.

[JeffR]

8. Agreed.

Despite his blackbox voting connections, he makes a lot of sense sometimes. No-one else on the list ever makes sense. So for that reason alone, he could be formidable.

[Common Sense Party]

25. Hagel will not come even close to winning the nomination.

He is despised by the Pubbie base, perhaps even more than McCain.

The fundies are willing to overlook Romney's Mormonism. He's a telegenic governor, not a haggard-looking legislator. That matters to shallow people.

[bryant69]

10. McCain would be hard to beat

But he would be bloodied by the campaign. That said, the Republicans have shown discipline in the past, so maybe they could get him nominated in a relatively clean state.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Boston Critic]

13. McCain will be hard..

... because people mistakenly think this very conservative Republican is a "moderate" and a "maverick." Some even think he stood up to Bush on torture and habeus corpus when, in the end, his actions on one were overriden by the "signing statement" and on the latter by pretty much capitulating.

[Poiuyt]

19. The media still paints McCain as a moderate

Your analysis is correct. If the media examined him closely, he wouldn't be able to stand up, but they seem to love him.

[RB TexLa]

14. Mike Huckabee would be a tough candidate

[FloridaPat]

15. The elephant.

[TheDebbieDee]

17. Hagel looks the best..........

Guiliani has too much scandalous junk in his closet, what, with the messy divorce.

McCain has become a proven panderer....he'll say anything to anybody to get their vote!

Of all the names you listed, I think Hagel is the closest the repukes can get to a decent human being!

[StaunchLiberal]

20. Guiliani

Guiliani was once performing in drag for SNL. The photo of him wearing female's clothes can be used against him by religious conservatives.

[GreenArrow]

21. Ahnold

They've got two years to change the law and make him eligible.

[Perky]

30. It is not a law it is the Constitution itself and that requires

3/4ths of the state legislature to approve it....

Never going to happen...Not enough time.....too many DEM controlled legislatures.

[patricia92243]

22. McCain is the B word - BORING! People will not be able to listen to him. People that are already p...

political may hang in there, but regular folks - that you MUST have to win elections - won't be able to stay focused on anything he mumbles.

They criticized Gore for being "rigid or stiff" - McCain will make Gore look like a live wire.

[TheFarseer]

23. Hagel and McCain are even

I'm not sure either can win the election. No one in Nebraska likes Hagel. Neither will have the fundy vote, but if they win the nomination, the crazies will come out to vote for other candidates and pull the level for any "R" at the top of the ballot.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

26. Some poll numbers...

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Political%20Tracking/Favorables/RepublicanPresidentialCandidates.htm

Also got Dem numbers & others there...

[elocs]

27. The way it looks now, almost any of them.

We do have one candidate who says he is not running that would probably walk all over any of them.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

28. What will the Iraq war be like on the eve of the 2008 election?

If Iraq is in total collapse and the U.S. military facing a military disaster, anyone who was a hawk on the war won't stand a chance. I think McCain with his proposal to send even more troops and his extremely hawkish stand on the war since the beginning of the conflict will look less and less viable as time goes on, unless there's a complete turnaround.

[WI_DEM]

31. Hagel, probably, but he won't run, so I say McCain just because

Independents seem to love him. I think Rudy's a man made of straw who can be easily broken down.

[baldguy]

32. The one who stands up and loudly repudiates everything Bush has done.

When pigs fly

[EdwardM]

33. Pat Buchanan.

The Republicans have moved so far to the right, that Pat Buchanan is the moderate in their party now. In other words, they are gonna lose.

[Telly Savalas]

34. Why all the votes for Hagel and McCain?

I thought DU orthodoxy was that Senators can't win.

[Perky]

36. The Senators running simply outpace

the three known non senators. Thompson, Guiliani and Romney

[noonwitch]

35. Independent voters like McCain a great deal.

The GOP is not going to nominate Rudy. They probably won't nominate McCain, and will go with some conservative like Frist. I don't think Frist is all that hard to beat, however.

[fhqwhgads]

37. mccain for sure...

...and i think he can win the nomination pretty easily. if the r's decide that he's their best chance of winning the wh, they will rally around him. seems like outside of du, even self-indentified liberals like mccain. the media has done such a good job making him out to be this moderate, maverick man of integrity, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.

we will idiotically nominate hillary, and watch helplessly as mccain wins all 50 states.

we need to make damned sure we hold on to congress, because i just can't envision a scenario in which we win back the wh in '08.

sorry for the doom and gloom. i think sen. clinton has the skills to be a very good president. i just think she makes a terrible nominee.