Saturday, April 30, 2005

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):

RankCandidatePointsFirst-Place Votes
1.George Allen229(19)
2.John McCain217(19)
3.Bill Frist184(11)
4.Rudy Giuliani129(8)
5.Mitt Romney109(5)
6.Haley Barbour93(6)
7.Jeb Bush61(6)
8.Condoleezza Rice56(3)
9.Chuck Hagel36(3)
10.George Pataki34(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.