Joe Biden ⇑ As I said elsewhere, reminiscient of the angry uncle most families have: often right, often scary. An old-school experience candidate whose time has passed. Decent organization last night in NH puts him past Dodd in my book.
Hillary Clinton ⇔ Having Internet voters pick her campaign song isthe first noteworthy online stunt by a campaign. She runs a tight campaign, and her ease in debate and campaign stops sometimes makes her deserving of her hubby’s nickname: “the natural”.
Chris Dodd ⇓ He’s not making an impact, though he did get a good number of people from CT to NH last night. Still, there’s nothing he offers that someone doesn’t offer more of, and better. Possibly the most unessential candidacy right now. Feel free to keep running, Chris. Also, feel free to drop out.
John Edwards ⇓ He keeps building up his edge, which I maintain is his best hope to step out of the others’ shadow. But he’s going to need to field that edge more deftly that he has lately. Shadow boxing is practice, and he’s making it the main event.
Mike Gravel ⇔ A straight-shooter on about three issues, and uninterested in the others. Needs Kucinich’s interest in policy.
Dennis Kucinich ⇔ He enjoys losing presidential races as much as some people enjoy winning them. Which is what is heading his way. Needs Gravel’s unflinching passion. (A child with Kucinich’s & Gravel’s DNA, born with John Howard’s technology, would be a wildly interesting candidate.)
Barack Obama ⇔ At the moment, he’s topped out. Will energy and hope get him by, or does the new health care plan give him some policy chops?
Bill Richardson ⇑ The pundits are racing to declare him “disappointing”. His ads are the only high-impact ones in the race so far, and in the past three months has quadrupled support in NH polls, tripled in Iowa, doubled in Nevada. That’s disappointing?
