Decision 2008: Fred Thompson to announce.

Former Tennessee U.S. Senator and Law and Order star Fred Thompson is set to file for a "testing the water" committee for a presidential bid in 2008. He is set to appear in several fundraisiers soon and this summer he is expected to officially join the race. Thompson draws alot of media buzz, because of his surprising double digit pollings. Some national and state poll put him 1st 2nd or even thrid but averages about 4th in polls and he hasn't even campaigned yet. Fred Thompson's candidacy is most likely going to hurt the campaigns of Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Giuliani has fallen 20-30 points in polls since Thompson announced he was thinking about running and Thompson's fame and love among conservatives may hurt conservative star Mitt Romney. Thompson's polls in Iowa and NH, states where Mitt is putting all his marbles , hurt his chances. The only campaign that benefits from Thompson's is John McCain's. Since his announcement he ahs moved to the top of state polls and near the top of national polls. It is for sure though that when Thompson does run he will man this 3-man stage a 4-man stage and instantly win a spot among the top tier. Until then we will just have to wait in see what the actor does.

Decision 2008: Presidential Power Rankings #22. Mitt's surge.

This week there is a major shake-up in rankings. Here's your end of the month rankings.

1st: John McCain (falling) McCain remains slightly ahead for his remaining strong numbers in Iowa, NH, and SC. His fundraising is short and his polls are falling so we should look for a new candidate in this #1 slot next week.

2nd Tied: Mitt Romney (rising) Rising public support and new poll numbers showing him ahead in Iowa, and NH and thrusted Romney to the #2 spot. His growing popularity may help his poor national numbers, but with Gingrich and Thompson still likely to jump in, look for him to lose the spotlight soon.

2nd Tied: Rudy Giuliani (falling) Giuliani remains ahead in national polls, but his polls in early states remains poor. He has slipped to 3rd in IA, NH and SC. He has yet to campaign in the lareg states where he is strong, like NY, CA and TX. If he could win there he could survive losing those key earl states.

4th: Fred Thompson (steady) His numbers remain in the high single to low doble digit numbers and once he jumps in his numbers could help him win in NH, IA and SC.

5th: Newt Gingrich (steady) Gingrich looks like a candidate now more than ever, with a countdown to the day he will decide to run on his PAC website. Gingrich could really shake up the field if he were to enter and he migth even thrust this race into a 5 man stage.

6th: Mike Huckabee (steady) Huckabee remains the leader of the 2nd tier of candidates with his national polls numbers averageing at 3-4%. Thats still weak but if a darkhorse were to happen he would likely be that darkhorse. Besides Arkansas Governors are known for major comebacks.

7th: Sam Brownback (steady) Up 2 positions since last month. His support in polls has shifted him to the highest position he has been in 3 months since he left the top 5.

8th: Tommy Thompson (steady) Poor national and Iowa polls give Thompson a slip in positions.

9th: Jim Gilmore (steady) Gilmore is too unknown and remains that so he stays about where he always is.

10th: Chuck Hagel (steady) Hagel seems more likely to run as an Independent for president than a republican. His re-election plans still look possible too. I really dont see Hagel as a GOP candidate for president but maybe an Independent candidate.

11th: Ron Paul (steady) Last weeks debate between Rudy and Paul raised his name recognition and put him in the lead among the 3rd tier.

12th: Duncan Hunter (steady) Hunter was strong in the past 2 debates, but he remains a 3rd tier candidate. Polls show he doesn't even register.

13th: Tom Tancredo (steady) Dead last is a whole new low for Tancredo. He is the first to hold that title since Paul jumped in. He remains unpopualr by his immigration remarks. He might not even break 5% in Colorado's primary.

Democrats:

1st: Hillary Clinton (steady) She remains ahead nationally and in nearly every state, except for the all important Iowa. Many had hoped she would quit Iowa and concentrate in NH where she leads. Hillary wouldn't hear of it and she will remain in Iowa. Polls there currently show her in 3rd 13 points from the lead.

2nd: Barack Obama (steady) His amazing surge of support that almost dethroned Hillary as frontrunner for the first time in the campaign has ended. He now remains in a distant 2nd nationally and 2nd in most of the early states. He only leads in Illionis his homestate. Obama's fundraising and strong numbers against Republicans, may help his chances though.

3rd: John Edwards (steady) The only thing keeping Edwards alive is that he leads in the first contest of the election season Iowa. If he loses Iowa his campaign will be dead. If he wins in Iowa that surge could help him pull a comeback Kerry move and win NH, and SC.

4th: Bill Richardson (steady) He and Biden are going nowhere so I put him in his old spot of 4th.

5th: Joe Biden (steady) Really I dont know why these other guys are even running. They really dont ahve much of a shot.

6th: Christopher Dodd (steady) He has finally made a pulse in some polls and is leading the 3rd tier.

7th: Dennis Kucinich (steady) About where he was 4 years ago. Kucinich will likely never even break 3% in any state.

8th: Mike Gravel (steady) A solid job at making a name for himself in the debate about a month ago. He was able to get included in some polls now but he fails to even make a 1% rating.

Note: Wesley Clark and Al Sharpton were removed from rankings because they are not likely to run.

Forum postponed 2 weeks.

Many of the candidates invited to our forum have yet to respond, so we will hold off on the forum for 2 weeks. I will set the official date next week. Special Thanks to Steve Adams for his speedy reply.

Decision 2007: Kentucky Primary

Well results have been coming in for about 3 hours now and it appears Governor Fletcher and Former Lt. Governor Steve Beshear have emerged victorious in their primaries by wide margins. Governor Ernie Fletcher who was seen as vulerable primary candidate defeated Fmr. Congressman Anne Northup only 6 months after her November re-election defeat and Businessman Billy Harper. Beshear defeated a crowded field of Democrats by a surprising landslide. He was expected to be neck and neck with Health Care Excutive Bruce Lunsford and Former Lt. Governor Steve Henry. He has nearly doubled their totals and no runoff will be needed. State Treasurer Jonathan Miller's withdrawal from the race probably contributed to Beshear's win tonight. Beshear and Fletcher now are on to fight a very competitive race for the Governor's mansion and no one can say who will win.

Kentucky Primary Governor Unofficial Election Results
Republican
(R)Ernie Fletcher 101,256 50.1%
(R)Anne Northup 73,791 36.5%
(R)Billy Harper 27,084 13.4%

Democratic
(D)Steve Beshear 142,733 40.9%
(D)Bruce Lunsford 74,537 21.4%
(D)Steve Henry 60,860 17.5%
(D)Jody Richards 45,376 13.0%
(D)Gatewood Calbraith 21,350 6.1%
(D)Otis Hensley 3,903 1.1%

In Memory of Anthony A. Nasso 1989-2007

America lost one of its brightest young leaders on May 18th, 2007. On that day Anthony Nasso went home into heaven. He will be extremely missed. Many referred to him by the u4prez site as tony4prez. He was a leading candidate and recieved high ratings. I think he has recieved one of the greatest memorial tributes throughout the country on the internet and we wanted to show our tribute to Anthony's triumphant return to the lord. We ask that all keep his family is their prayers as they endure this death.

Anthony Nasso Memorial Site http://tony4prez.memory-of.com/

Decision 2008: Republicans meet again in South Carolina to debate.

The 10 presidential candidates about 2 weeks after their first debate meet again to discuss the issues and get a little attacks in at each other. Well I have to say Giuliani, McCain and Romney performed well and Huckabee and Hunter led the 2nd tiers. Mayor Giuliani did what he had to do to win and that was show his patriotism and his effectiveness in 9/11. His remarks against Congressman Ron Paul of Texas about how we brought 9/11 upon us. Mayor Giuliani asked that he take back that comment, but the Congressman defended it. Giuliani also peformed better with his abortion questions, because he knew they were coming. He also was able to stand out while McCain and Romney attacked each other. The surprise of the night though had to of been the feud between Romney and McCain. Governor Romney critized Senator McCain for his sponsoring of McCain-Kennedy and McCain-Feingold bills dealing with campaign finances, and Senator McCain critized the governor on how he changes positions on views every time he runs for a different political office. Romney later stated in an interview afterwards that McCain flip-flops too, like on the Bush Tax cuts, but McCain held firm that he satys with his position no matter what he is doing in politics. Politics-Central has to give the win tonight to Mayor Giuliani. He improved much more than last week and even though McCain and Romney feuded quite a bit they both performed well too. No real significany change though. The 1st tiers are still 1st tiers amd the 2nd tiers are still 2nd tiers.

Debate Performance of Candidates out of 10.

Giuliani 8

McCain 7

Romney 7

Huckabee 6

Hunter 6

Gilmore 5

Brownback 3

Tancredo 3

Thompson 3

Paul 1

On to the CNN Debates of June 3rd and 5th between both the Democratic Presidential Candidates and the Republicans.

Decision 2008: Presidential Candidate Forum.

We here at Politics-Central will soon be hosting a presidential candidate forum when we will ask any presidential candidate available, most likely the minor ones to join us in a discussion. This discussion will be held Saturday May, 26th between 6:00-9:00 at night. I will be posting many candidate answers throughout the night and all will be finished by Sunday morning. We will be taking email questions for any of the candidates. This may take up our time for rankings and other posts so after the debate anaylsis of tommorrow GOP FOX news debate we will postpone all posting until the forum. If you would like to ask a question please send it to politics_central_writer@yahoo.com or yop_kio@yahoo.com.

Thanks!

Decision 2008: Presidential Power Rankings #21: McCain on top!

Republicans

1st: John McCain (rising) Polls have shown a huge recovery in polls for the senator and he is now at the front of the pack in our ratings alone for the first time in 7 months. McCain now trails Giuliani by only 2 points nationally leads in IA, NH and SC and probably won last week's debate. Great things have begun to happen for his campaign byt with hsi views on Iraq he could fall again in polls.

2nd: Rudolph Giuliani (falling) A huge loss last week and a 20-30 point dip in polls put Rudy in the #2 spot for the first time in along time. His stance on abortion has also been hurting him can he continue to campaign like this and win. Polls have shown he ahs taken a major hit. Will he recover?

3rd: Fred Thompson (steady) Thompson still remains in the double digits in polls and hasn't even campaigned yet. We could see him shake up the political field once he announces this summer.

4th: Mitt Romney (steady) New Polls show Romney leading in NH, UT, and MI! All of these are early primaries and he could surprise us all with these wins. Romney is also considered ot have won last week's debate.

5th: Newt Gingrich (steady) Gingrich has dropped from double digits, but he know looks like he could run especially we no clear presumptive nominee yet.

Democrats

1st: Hillary Clinton (steady) Hillary continues to fall. but she remains in the lead nationally and leads in most early states excpet for Iowa. She still has to be considered the leader of the pack, hwoever her funsraising loss and debate loss to Obama could hurt her.

2nd: Barack Obama (steady) Obama continues to remain strong but not strong enough to become the frontrunner. Obama doesn't lead in one key early contest and his national support remains behind Hillary 8%-15%. He still has a great fundraising base and celebrity status. His rockstar look ma thrust him into the lead.

3rd: John Edwards (steady) Edwards continues to lead in Iowa and closing in on Hillary and Obama in NH. Nationally his support his weak. but with wins in IA and NH he could surge support the other direction and into his favor.

4th: Joe Biden (steady) Biden finally surpassed Richardson 2 weeks ago after the debate and became the leader of the 2nd-tier. Biden howver he still recovering from his early mistakes.

5th: Bill Richardson (steady) Richardson continues to fall after his poor performance 2 weeks ago at the debate. Can he comeback?

Decision 2008: Presidential Candidate Power Rankings #20.

Here are our end of the month presidential power rankings. Sorry about no getting these to you last week, but because of the work I had I was too busy to post them.

Republicans

Tied 1st: John McCain (rising) Back on top again in Iowa, NH, and South Carolina Polls according to ARG polls. McCain also takes back the lead with his strong performance last night at the debate. New national polls show McCain gaining there as well. I think this one man show has turned back into a two man show and soon to be four.

Tied 1st: Rudolph Giuliani (falling) He falls to 2nd and 3rd in NH, IA, and SC and his nationwide lead has slipped 20 points with a month! He is now within striking distance of being replaced as the frontrunner. Rudy better watch out McCain, Thompson and even Romney are coming on strong.

3rd: Fred Thompson (rising) Thompson remains in 10%-17% in polls and he hasn't even campaigned yet. Imagine how much he could shake up the field if the Thompson machine takes off and he actually runs.

4th: Mitt Romney (rising) New Polls in New Hampshire show Romney tied or barely trailing McCain and his strong perfromace last night could be seen as a poll booster.

5th: Newt Gingrich (steady) His double digit numbers are gone but he could still be a serious threat if he decided to run.

6th: Mike Huckabee (steady) Huckabee showed one of the strongest peformances last night at the debate among 2nd teir candidates. Could he move into the frontrunners tier?

7th: Tommy Thompson (steady) Thompson has moved to become one of the leading candidates among the 2nd tier, but other than that he remains in this postion or lower.

8th: Chuck Hagel (steady) Rumors are about that Hagel wont seek the GOP nomination and that he will run on the Unity'08 ticket. Hagel has yet to state whether or not he will run or not.

9th: Sam Brownback (falling) Brownback had fallen from the top 5 to near the end of the top 10. His campaign is slowly diminishing.

10th: Jim Gilmore (steady) Gilmore hasn't changed much. He claims he is the ultra-conservative of the 10 announced candidates and some say that may put him in this race.

11th: Duncan Hunter (steady) Hunter also performed well in the debate, but he remains near the bottom in most polls and no one really knows who he is.

12th: Tom Tancredo (falling) Tancredo had the worst performance besides Giuliani at the debate and he poorly comes off well to voters with his immigration views. I think he will remain at this spot.

13th: Ron Paul (steady) Paul remains dead last, but he still thinks he will be the next president. I think some one needs to give him a hint. Run as a libertarian thats the only way you will get on the ballot in November!

Democrats

1st: Hillary Clinton (falling) We still have to rate Clinton as the frontrunner since she leads nationally and leads in most key states, however Obama is gaining like wildfire day by day. We could see another at the top of this lost by next month.

2nd: Barack Obama (rising) Obama for the first time ever beat Hillary Clinton, the once presumed nominee in one poll. Rasmussen finds Obama leading Hillary. Obama also has great fundraising base and can really gain a crowd. I wouldn't be surprised if he look the lead in NH and SC within a week or so. Iowa remains Edwards territory though.

3rd: John Edwards (steady) Edwards remains in the lead in Iowa and not to far behind in NH. In SC he is tied with Hillary. Could a strong showing in these states win him the nomination? Edwards seems to be proving many wrong when he continues to lead in Iowa. A win there for Kerry gave him the nomination in 2004 and could give his running mate the same luck.

4th: Joe Biden (steady) Biden has seemed to become the leader of the 2nd tier caniddates as Richardson falters. His once dead campaign might revive.

5th: Bill Richardson (falling) Richardson continues to fall in polls as Biden surpasses him. His poor performance in last weeks debate may also hurt his campaign.

6th: Wesley Clark (falling) Clark doesn't look like he will run anymore so we will continue to rate him down, even though he still has fair poll numbers.

7th: Dennis Kucinich (steady) Remains in his same postion as last month. Kucinich might do better than his 1-2% average in 2004 since he leads most 2nd to 3rd tier candidates.

8th: Christopher Dodd (steady) Dodd did perform well in last week's debate, but that wont be enough to revive his dead from the start campaign.

9th: Mike Gravel (rising) His comic releif act last week won him enough attention to get noticed. Gravel may make it to the 2nd tier.

10th: Al Sharpton (falling) Doubtful that he will even run and no one puts him in polls so we may remove him along with clark next month from our ratings.

More Breaks to continue....

Sorry but I will be having many breaks for awhile until summer. I will likely only post 1 or 2 posts a week my apologies. I am quite busy and can not get back to full time posting until about June 8th.

Decision 2008: 10 GOP Presidential Candidates meet in Reagan Library for their 1st debate.

Last night the crowded republican field of presidential candidates met at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for their first nationally televised debates. The 3 frontrunners, Giuliani, McCain, and Romney faced the possibilty of making a mistake and blowing their chances while the 2nd and 3rd tier candidates vy for a spot with the big wigs. Political anaylists give the win to Mitt Romney, however John McCain was examined to come off as the most presidential. Both candidates are said to have performed well. McCain faced challenges for his recent remarks and many worried this debate could be the beginnning of the end for him. He however surprised them all and in our opinion stood out the most and was the strongest candidate on the stage. We have to admit Governor Romney had the best and most well thought out answers and we have to give him the win. Frontrunner Mayor Giuliani who is currently falling in polls, performed well under what others had expected. Many rate his performance to that of Ron Paul last night. The Mayor didn't stand out at all with his ideas, he poorly showed his presidential qualities and wavered on his abortion views. He also wavered on many topics and didn't do as well as Romney with covering up his flip flops. The other candidates are probably still unknown to the public and did nothing to improve that status. They will all likely remain in that postion for a long time. Well no real changes though. The 3 frontrunners remain the 3 frontrunners in the race and the 7 others remain just the also-rans.

Our Rankings of Candidates Performances last night: Scale 1-10
1st: Mitt Romney 8 out of 10
2nd: John McCain 7 out of 10
3rd: Mike Huckabee 5 out of 10
4th: Sam Brownback 4 out of 10
5th: Jim Gilmore 3 out of 10
5th: Tommy Thompson 3 out of 10
7th: Duncan Hunter 2 out of 10
7th: Ron Paul 2 out of 10
9th: Tom Tancredo 1 out of 10
10th: Rudy Giuliani 1 out of 10