Which Gubernatorial candidates will be potential presidential candidates?

[Governor PiT]

OH: Strickltand(not sure)
      Blackwell(not likeky)
Mass: Deva Patrick(maybe)
NY: Spitzer(maybe VP)
California: Arnold(maybe)
Florida: Crist(Never!)
            Linn(maybe reform nominee in 08)
Texas: Perry(not likely)
           Friedman (maybe)       

[Saxwsylvania]

Bill Ritter of Colorado deserves mention, as does Republican Jim Nussle of Iowa. 

[Joe Republic]

California: Arnold(maybe)

Two years is not long enough to pass a constitutional amendment that has virtually no momentum or widespread support.

[True Democrat]

MAX LINN WILL WIN IN 08


JOIN MAX LINN AND TEH WINNING TEAM!!!11!!!!1!!!

[DownWithTheLeft]

I like Jim Nussle in 2016

[Kevin]

O'Mallley's next stop is federal prison so I would write him off.

[Joe Republic]

O'Mallley's next stop is federal prison so I would write him off.

Evidently not.

[Moooooo]

O'Mallley's next stop is federal prison so I would write him off.

lol, O'Malley's next stop is the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis.

[Rob]

You guys did good in Maryland, Nick.

[Moooooo]

You guys did good in Maryland, Nick.

Thanks, man.  I actually told Sam the other day I shouldnt let emotion get in the way of my political analysis, but I just knew deep down the polls werent reflective what was going on here on the ground in Maryland.

[JSojourner]

Eliot Spitzer is definitely a Presidential candidate.  Hell, I even heard some Democrats talking about him as a VP before he ran for governor.  But don't look for him in 2008.  '12 is more likely.  Strickland could emerge in '12 also.

Phil Bredesen will be looked at seriously in 2008, but probably as a VP.  I have to wonder if Kathy Sebelius, Brad Henry, Dave Freudenthal, Brian Schweitzer and Jan Napolitano are discussed as possibilities.

Among Republicans, no one seems like a bigger winner than Jodi Rell.  Remember how she came into office?  Talk about a mess and a half!  And by all accounts, she has responded brilliantly.  There will be much support among religious conservatives for Mike Rounds, too. <shudder>  I am just imagining a Mike Rounds-Jim DeMint ticket...  ;-)

So...has anyone heard from Tom Vilsack in the last year?

[Kevin]

O'Mallley's next stop is federal prison so I would write him off.

lol, O'Malley's next stop is the Governor's Mansion in Annapolis.

I mean after he is done with his time in the Governor's Mansion and after he is finished screwing Maryland. Sorry that I did not state that before. 

[© tweed]

O'Malley obviously has a national future.  He's got everything except the resume, hopefully he can build that.

And I doubt Spitzer is a future president.  Liberal NY Jews don't play well in alot of areas.

[Boris]

You guys did good in Maryland, Nick.

Seconded. CNN has O'Malley up by seven points and Cardin up by ten. Kudos to the Maryland Democratic Party.

[okstate]

For VP at least, there's a lot of buzz about Kathleen Sibelius, Brad Henry, and Janet Napolitano on the Dem side.

[DanielX]

O'Malley is terrible. The fact that the Dems here fawn over him scares me; he was borderline-incompetant as mayor of Baltimore and will be no better for the state. Even Duncan would've been better. Frankly, big-city mayors from the machine party (Democrats in most cities, Republicans in Miami and a few others) are not trustworthy for higher office in general, and O'Malley is very much no exception to this rule. And Balitmore is more of a basket case than most cities, which O'Malley's term has seen no real improvement. O'Malley won, not because he has any innate ability, but because he's a Democrat in a strongly Democrat state running in a year when Republicans are doing poorly against a fairly dull candidate who has been a largely do-nothing governor. He won only by a quite slim margin, too - slimmer than Ehrlich's 2002 victory over Townsend. He isn't even guaranteed re-election. 

The best Democrats would be...hmm.. probably Sebelius, maybe Spitzer if we're talking 2012 or later. Bredesen would do well in the general election but he'd never get nominated. All those other red-state dems are good choices, but the Nutroots will oppose them in favor of either the wacko bunch or 'mixed message' sorts like Hillary Clinton or Mark Warner. Generally, I'd find the western/southern dems more tolerable, even if they're populists (in part because they're more likely to take World War III seriously).

The best Republicans... Rounds for the right end in 08, Rell for the middle in 08, and Crist to split the difference in 2012 or later. Arnold is possible, but not without an amendment.

However, I think this election has predicted who the 44th President will be: John McCain.  Pair him off with a conservative but not Bush-associated Republican Governor (Rounds, Barbour, Perdue, and Sanford seem possible).

[WMS]

No mention of "gone from the state 90% of the time once the election results are finalized" Bill Richardson?

[TheresNoMoney]

Martin O'Malley, Elliot Spitzer and maybe Deval Patrick

[Moooooo]

O'Malley is terrible. The fact that the Dems here fawn over him scares me; he was borderline-incompetant as mayor of Baltimore and will be no better for the state. Even Duncan would've been better. Frankly, big-city mayors from the machine party (Democrats in most cities, Republicans in Miami and a few others) are not trustworthy for higher office in general, and O'Malley is very much no exception to this rule. And Balitmore is more of a basket case than most cities, which O'Malley's term has seen no real improvement.

No one has ever claimed O'Malley was a great mayor, but to say he is borderline incompetent and the city has made no real improvement makes me wonder if you know anything about Baltimore City or the condition it was in when O'Malley took over.  He stemmed the population hemorrhage, brought in 9 billion in outside investment, many neighborhoods have went through a major renaissance, grades 1-5 are now majority proficient in reading and math (none were majority proficient when he took over), graduation rates are the highest they've been in decades, sanitation has improved some (rats, trash pickups, etc.), violent crime and property crimes are down (the % is debatable), and CitiStat is a national model for government accountability.  I could go on, but I’ll stop there.  John Fund of the Wall Street Journal said on WBAL radio a couple weeks ago that O’Malley is one best Mayors Baltimore has ever seen.

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Wrong again, in 2002 Ehrlich won by approximately 57,000 votes.  O'Malley is currently leading by 110,000 votes with a few precincts still outstanding in Prince George's County.  We also have 120,000 or so absentee ballots that have yet to be counted.  Majority of the absentee ballots were requested and sent-in by registered Democrats, though, some believe Ehrlich will have a slight edge in the final absentee count because he pushed for them so hard (ironic considering he vetoed the bill that allowed for no-excuse absentee voting).

Ehrlich was the only incumbent Governor in the Country to lose re-election (Republican incumbents survived in CT, RI, VT, and CA).  His job approval has always been rather stellar (50-55%), with fairly low disapproval ratings.  He lost because he chose to run a negative campaign based on assassinating the character of not only Martin O’Malley, but the City of Baltimore, while his rock star challenger decided to run a campaign of hope, empowerment, and positive vision for the state of Maryland.

With that said, I'm not sure if O'Malley has a national future.  He has always been branded as guy with a lot of ambition, but I've never once heard him mention it.  People just assume he's going places because he's a young, good-looking, and charismatic Democrat.  I think he's focused on Maryland and that is exactly what he should be focused on.

How sweet it is, Governor-elect O'Malley. 

[Joel the Attention Whore]

Ritter will be the big name in 2012 if the Democrats don't win in 08.

[JSojourner]

O'Malley obviously has a national future.  He's got everything except the resume, hopefully he can build that.

And I doubt Spitzer is a future president.  Liberal NY Jews don't play well in alot of areas.

Maybe it's time we had a Liberal NY Jew as President then.  ;-)  I know I'd vote for him! 

[JSojourner]

Frankly, big-city mayors from the machine party (Democrats in most cities, Republicans in Miami and a few others) are not trustworthy for higher office in general

You may be right.  But I would love to see Shirley Franklin taken seriously as a Presidential or Vice-Presidential candidate. 

I am a big believer in Mayors seeking higher office.  Not necessarily President, but I wouldn't rule it out.  Three Republican Mayors who have impressed me were Richard Lugar (now a Senator), George Voinovich (now a Senator) and Paul Helmke (ran for House seat here but lost in primary...is now with the Brady folks in D.C.)

On the Democratic side, the aforementioned Shirley Franklin is a winner. And I still think Dennis Archer merits consideration for higher office, even though he is no longer a Mayor. There are probably some others.

[Kevin]

I have gut feeling that O'Malley is going to be a failure as Governor as he was the Mayor of the city of Baltimore, which seems to have gotten much worse under his management and combined with the fact that he has I have a good feeling plenty of skelations in his closet. In short I have a feeling this guy is going to be the Democratic version of Bob Taft, now all you members of this froum that are Democrats don't see this or don't want to see this but I have a good feeling that O'Malley is going to be a big time falilure. 

[Governor PiT]

Mihos?

[Moooooo]

I have gut feeling that O'Malley is going to be a failure as Governor as he was the Mayor of the city of Baltimore, which seems to have gotten much worse under his management and combined with the fact that he has I have a good feeling plenty of skelations in his closet. In short I have a feeling this guy is going to be the Democratic version of Bob Taft, now all you members of this froum that are Democrats don't see this or don't want to see this but I have a good feeling that O'Malley is going to be a big time falilure. 

Bob was a failure and that is why he was the only incumbent Governor in the entire nation to lose re-election.