Decision 2008: Presidential Power Rankings #40

Here are Politics-Central Oct-November Power Rankings:

Republicans:

1st Tied: Mitt Romney (rising) Romney continues his stable lead in Iowa and New Hampshire and is showing strength in South Carolina. If Mitt does win in Iowa he could sweep the primaries and the nominations.

1st Tied: Rudy Giuliani (steady) Giuliani currently leads in Florida, a strong southern state, but still trails Romney is key early states. Michigan may put Rudy over Mitt in the race but he can't win without NH. Pat Robertson's endorsement is expected to boost his campaign.

3rd: John McCain (steady) McCain has finally tied Thompson now in National Polls and new Iowa and NH polls show McCain's campaign getting a small boost from the Brownback endorsement. McCain also is up to 16% a high in South Carolina. McCain was so bold to state he will win NH. NH is his do or die state, but new numbers are showing the former frontrunner, may be back in this thing. McCain now seems to be the most electable Republican according to General Election Match-up Polls.

4th Tied: Fred Thompson (falling) With the Right to Life endorsement Thompson may get a boost, however it is unlikely. Currently the only early contests he holds strong in is South Carolina, where he comes in a close 2nd to Romney. Thompson has fallen to a distant 3rd in Florida and even polls in his homestate of Tennessee show Thompson in a tight race. Thompson's campaign has certainly lagged lately.

4th Tied: Mike Huckabee (rising) New National polls show his campaign skyrocketing. He has gone from 3-5% nationally to 10-12%. In Iowa he is 8-10 points from the lead now in 2nd. Huckabee's darkhorse campaign is quickly picking up steam while Thompson and McCain lose steam especially in Iowa. If Kerry came back and won Iowa in 2004, we can't rule out a Huckabee win in Iowa in 2008.

Democrats

1st: Hillary Clinton (falling) For the first time in 2 months Hillary has actually slipped in polls. That slip isn't big enough to take her frontrunner status, but it is great enough for us to re-thnk whether she has he nomination locked up. New Iowa and NH polls show a sharp dip in polls for Clinton, while Obama trails not too far behind.

2nd: Barack Obama (rising) The Jackson and Jefferson dinner was clearly a success for the Obama campaign. Obama is now within 5-8 points on Hillary in Iowa and 10-12 in NH which is down from 20 last week. Obama's campaign of attack-dogging is improving and may benefit his campaign.

3rd: John Edwards (falling) Edwards continues to fall in his must-win Iowa caucus. He has fallen to a distant 3rd. Edwards needs to no less than win the state to continue if not the race is over for him.

4th: Bill Richardson (falling) Richardson as we have stated earlier is longer running for president, but for Hillary's VP slot. Nothing further.

5th: Joe Biden (rising) With Richardson falling and Biden's steep attacks on Rudy Giulini Biden has risen to 6% in NH, but still way too far to catch up to Obama and Hillary.