Insiders on Romney

Political Wire has some information about an 'Insiders Poll' done by the National Journal handicapping potential 2008 Presidential candidates. Eighty-five Republicans and Ninety Democrats were asked to rank their top five choices for their side. Care to guess where our beloved governor ranked? From the article (PDF):

Rank	Candidate	Points	First-Place Votes
1.	George Allen	229	(19)
2.	John McCain	217	(19)
3.	Bill Frist	184	(11)
4.	Rudy Giuliani	129	(8)
5.	Mitt Romney	109	(5)
6.	Haley Barbour	93	(6)
7.	Jeb Bush	61	(6)
8.	Condoleezza Rice	56	(3)
9.	Chuck Hagel	36	(3)
10.	George Pataki	34	(2)

Not too bad, considering where Romney ranked among actual human beings back in March. Among the party elite, Mitt even does better than Jeb! and Condi -- never mind that they have said they're not running. The article itself didn't spend much time on Romney, but they did have this to say:

On Mitt Romney: "Good-looking, rich, but can a one-term Massachusetts governor get there from here? Doubtful."

Of course, you didn't need to be an insider to figure that out.

Interestingly enough, on the Democratic side, Senator John Kerry also finished fifth, though he only got two first place votes (Senator Hillary Clinton was number one with 68 first place votes). On John Kerry:

"Kerry had his shot, he blew it, and there won't be a second chance. Kerry will come to his senses and not run in '08."

No disagreement there, either. I imagine Kerry will toy with the idea of running, but in the end he'll be content to use his contact lists and campaign warchest to play kingmaker.