2008 Election Coverage

Scathing Rebuke of John McCain: Throw Rummy Under the Train

Rolling Stone National Affairs Daily » Blog Archive » Weathervane McCain: Throw Rummy Under the Bus

I agree with a lot of what this guy is saying.  I really like McCain.  He’s been will to take principled stands, though it has cost him the support of the more extreme wing of his party.  It has also cost him a presidential nomination.  he’s decided that a little compromise is OK.  But at what cost…

Forget the kick-a-guy-after-he’s-been-run-over-by-a-train aspect of McCain’s remarks. McCain is clearly trying to distance himself from the failings of this war. As David Gergen put it to me recently: “John McCain’s fortunes are tied Iraq; he’s the tail to that kite now, because the president has embraced the McCain formula of more troops, and the probability is that this kite’s not going to fly very well.”

…

So Rummy makes a convenient scapegoat. But what chafes my hide is that McCain, alone among sitting senators not named Warner, could have been instrumental in forcing the president to remove Rumsfeld earlier. Years earlier. And yet John McCain offered instead his silent consent to Rummy’s historically incompetent leadership.

This is no longer a man of principle. This is a man so rapt by the idea of becoming The Decider that there is no ideological jujitsu he’s unwilling to perform to gain that power.

Add comment February 20th, 2007

Odds on the 2008 Presidential Campaign

Update: 8/23/2007

(old odds are at the bottom)

Hillary Clinton 2-1

Al Gore 6-1

John McCain 5-1

George Allen Jr 50-1

Rudy Giuliani 3-1

Sam Brownback 25-1

Bill Richardson 50-1

Mark Warner 30-1

Mitt Romney 8-1

Mike Huckabee 50-1

Evan Bayh 40-1

Chuck Hagel 200-1

Colin Powell 50-1

Joe Biden 50-1

Bill Frist 50-1

John Edwards 6-1

Newt Gingrich 20-1

Tom Vilsack 50-1

Russ Feingold 50-1

Barack Obama 7-2

Rick Santorum 80-1

Tom Tancredo 100-1

Mike Gravel 100-1

Tom Ridge 60-1

Tom Daschle 60-1

Bill Owens 100-1

Bob Kerrey 100-1

John Kerry 40-1

George Pataki 50-1

Condoleezza Rice 30-1

Gary Locke 100-1

Dick Gephardt 100-1

Wesley Clark 20-1

Dick Cheney 75-1

Howard Dean 100-1

Alberto Gonzales 100-1

Bob Ehrlich 100-1

Charles Schumer 100-1

Harold Ford Jr 100-1

Jack Kemp 100-1

Jeb Bush 100-1

Jay Rockefeller 100-1

Ralph Nader 100-1

Paul Bremmer 150-1

Joe Lieberman 150-1

Bob Graham 150-1

Michael Bloomberg 15-1

Tommy Franks 200-1

Jesse Jackson 200-1

George W Bush 200-1

Dennis Kucinich 200-1

Arnold Schwarzenegger 250-1

Bill Clinton 300-1

Paul Wolfowitz 750-1

Alan Keyes 750-1

Elizabeth Dole 750-1

Clint Eastwood 750-1

Ted Kennedy 750-1

Bill OReilly 750-1

Laura Bush 500-1

James Carville 1000-1

Jesse Ventura 1000-1

Al Sharpton 500-1

John Ashcroft 1500-1

Donald Rumsfeld 500-1

Pat Robertson 2000-1

Bill Maher 2500-1

Donald Trump 1000-1

Michael Moore 1000-1

Chris Dodd 100-1

Doug Stanhope 50-1

Wayne Root 1000-1

Ron Paul 8-1

Fred Thompson 4-1

Tommy Thompson 200-1

Duncan Hunter 200-1

Update: 3/15/2007

Republicans:
6/4 Rudolph Guiliani
3-1 John McCain    
6-1 Mitt Romney    
21-1 Tommy Thompson
26-1 Sam Brownback
34-1 Chuck Hagel 
34-1 George Pataki
34-1 Condoleeza Rice
With the announcement this morning that Barak Obama is forming a presidential exploratory committee, I figured it was time to put together a list of who’s running with odds on each (let’s not pretend it isn’t a horse race):

Democrats:

Hillary Clinton - 9:5 odds
Barak Obama - 5:2 odds
John Edwards - 12:1
Al Gore - 50:1
Chris Dodd - 60:1
Joseph R. Biden - 75:1
Bill Richardson - 75:1
Tom Vilsack - 75:1
Wesley Clark - 100:1
John Kerry - 120:1
Dennis Kucinich - 250:1
Republicans:

John McCain - 8:5 odds
Mitt Romney - 3:1 odds
Rudy Giuliani - 6:1
Newt Gingrich - 80:1
Jim Gilmore - 99:1
Tommy G. Thompson - 99:1
Chuck Hagel - 100:1
Mike Huckabee - 100:1
Tom Tancredo - 100:1
Sam Brownback - 120:1
Duncan Hunter - 150:1

Update - 3/2/2007:

No real change on the democatic side.  Republican odds have shifted drastically at the top with McCain slipping and Giuliani pulling even / slightly ahead.  Duncan Hunter has gained as well with a strong showing in a recent SC straw poll.  It’s hard to handicap without an obvious conservative candidate.  Without further delay:

Republicans:

Rudy Giuliani - 3:1
John McCain - 3:1 odds
Mitt Romney - 4:1 odds
Duncan Hunter - 50:1
Newt Gingrich - 50:1
Jim Gilmore - 75:1
Chuck Hagel - 100:1
Mike Huckabee - 100:1
Tommy G. Thompson - 120:1
Tom Tancredo - 150:1
Sam Brownback - 150:1

 

List of candidates per New York Times

3 comments January 16th, 2007