Great question. I love it.
#1) CARLY FIORINA - people treat her as if she's not like the #6-7 seat the GOP will pick up (only in a massive wave) and hasn't proven herself a gaffe-prone failure during the McCain campaign already. The challenge from DeVore will force her to the right and her failures as HP will doom her. I mean, I'm sure the Boxer campaign is already lining up the former HP employees for ads, and they aren't afraid to hit hard.
Boxer's approvals aren't high, but unless Fiorina has a "hook" against Boxer, like the challengers against Dodd, Vitter, Dodd, etc. have, I don't think she can make enough mojo among minorities to get anywhere
#2) Recently, Mark Kirk...he's making all kinds of really stupid mistakes to piss off his best ticket in the general election, the Chicago media. He's drawn scathing reviews from the Tribune and the Sun-Times, both publications that used to fawn over him over his recent decision to go ballistics (with factual errors) about the stupidity over Gitmo folks in Illinois.
#3) Pick a Paulite.
I guess these are all Republicans and my sleep-deprived brain is showing its inherent partisanship
I agree with you that Carnahan was initially overrated, she had initially shown a huge fundraising gap over Blunt, and at the start of the campaign the Blunt name was more toxic...I mean, I remember being vaguely involved with some of Nixon's campaign for governor in MO and people forget that Matt Blunt was the second least popular governor in America (after Blagojevich) by early 2008....so yeah, I'd probably put Carnahan as #4
I want to say that Melancon is overrated, but nobody gives him much credit. I want to say Conway is overrated, but people don't give him much credit either, and he's a relatively polished and attractive candidate who's probably the least potentially buffoonish of his three opponents....I want to say Alexi is overrated, because he is, but Kirk is the one who's making mistakes left and right.... obviously Reid and Dodd are both in danger but everyone knows that.
I don't think Crist is that overrated, he seems like he's a really talented politician, and what no one gives him credit for is how utterly ruthless he's going to be. Rubio is not only battling 100% name recognition but he's battling someone who's willing to race-bait and promise real-estate the developers the moon for an extra $3m for his campaign....and frankly, Kendrick Meek is not that strong of a candidate, otherwise why would Hildebrand bail on his campaign?
I'd say Lincoln was overrated, which she probably is, but I haven't seen what's even going on down there and frankly I don't think I'll have my finger on the pulse of an area where Hillary and Palin could both be beloved.
Hoffman and Cheryl what's-her-face are both overrated as potential challengers to Alexi in IL as he has the Union support etc. and nobody really knows why they're in the race.
God knows what's going on in Pennsylvania.
Where am I?
I have my list of underrated candidates which include McMahon and Bennet
