American Idle: Handicapping '08

Since Iowa will be floating in Caucus-ians in the coming months, I thought I would get in on handicapping the 2008 presidential race. I plan to update this about once a month, so stay tuned and follow your candidate's climb or decline.

Democrats*

Top Tier (Hot and has Money)
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Barack Obama

Middle Tier (Not as hot, but has Organization)
John Edwards


Lower Tier (Not hot, but has Name Recognition)
Bill Richardson
Wesley Clark

Shed No Tier(s) (Not hot, but has Loyal Base)
Dennis Kucinich
Mike Gravel
Al Sharpton
Al Gore

Tier(s) for Fears (Accidents hoping to happen)
Joe Biden
Chris Dodd
Lyndon Larouche

Tier-Less (Hasta la Vista)
Tom Vilsack

Republicans

Top Tier

John McCain

Mitt Romney

Middle Tier

Rudolph Giuiliani

Lower Tier

Sam Brownback

Chuck Hagel

Shed No Tier(s)

Newt Gingrich

Ron Paul

Tommy Thompson

Mike Huckabee

Tier(s) for Fears

Hunter Duncan

Tom Tancredo

John Cox

Jim Gilmore

*Special mention to Sal Mohammed, who is running for the Democratic nomination for president even though he is not a natural-born US Citizen (something the Constitution requires of candidates). Sal the Iowa US senate race is in '08 too--you do qualify for that.