And on the Republican side for 2008

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Presidential_election

Official candidates who have filed with the FEC for the Republican Party:

* Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas
* John H. Cox of Illinois
* Michael Charles Smith of Oregon

Candidates who have formed exploratory committees:

* Former Governor Jim Gilmore of Virginia
* Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani of New York
* Representative Duncan Hunter of California
* Senator John McCain of Arizona
* Representative Ron Paul of Texas
* Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts
* Representative Tom Tancredo of Colorado
* Former Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin

Candidates who have expressed serious interest:

* Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia
* Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska
* Former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas
* Former Governor George Pataki of New York

 

So what's Gilmore's plan? To covertly get Congress to pass a car tax, then run on a repeal-the-car-tax platform?

 

My picks (not based on my preferences):

1. Romney
2. Gingrich
3. McCain

 

there will be 20 Dems and 20 Reps running before too long

 

I like Huckabee but if by some chance he won, be prepared to have a lot of bills passed regarding childhood obesity.

 

And he'd also hold his own housewarming party at the White House, registering for gifts at Target and Dillards.

 

And then he'd tell the press his registrations should have been private for close friends and family only.

 

Arkansas governors are 1-for-1 in running for the White House.

 

That's because everyone thinks that this is their year. The 2008 race will be the first time since 1928 (80 years) that neither the sitting president nor the sitting vice president will enter a state caucus or primary and run for president. This was almost (but not quite) the case in the more recent Presidential contest in 1952. In the general election that year, the race was between Republican candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower and Democratic candidate Adlai Stevenson; earlier that year, sitting President Harry S Truman had entered the New Hampshire primary in an attempt to seek re-election. He lost to Tennessee Senator Estes Kefauver and abandoned his campaign. Also in 1952, Vice President Alben Barkley sought but failed to win the Democratic nomination.

 

It's been a while since I've had to tackle history of that era, but why was Truman, the sitting president during the country's biggest military victory since at least the War of 1812, so vulnerable that he got turfed in the first primary? Backlash from The Bomb? Or did he fail at life and get his image resurrected by the passage of time?

 

The Korean stalemate probably had something to do with it. In addition, I think there was some people who had tired of Truman. It would have been Truman's "third" term had he won, and considering the FDR amendment had just passed, I think some voters were looking forward to someone new.

 

And if Huckabee wins, the town of Hope, Ark. would be 2-for-2. I guess only Quincy, Mass. has that kind of record.

(Truman, BTW, was the last president eligible to run for a third term. The 22nd Amendment kicked in at the end of his tenure.)