Gov. Dave Freudenthal (D-Wyo.) Most Popular Governor

[HAnnA MArin County]

Nate Silver at 538.com made a list of the most popular governors in the country:

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/06/gubernatorial-power-rankings-crist.html

Who's the most popular governor in the land? A fairly well-informed observer might guess Jon Huntsman, Jr. of Utah (who won't be a governor for much longer), Charlie Crist of Florida or Sarah Palin of Alaska. Those would all be pretty good guesses, except for Palin, who was once extremely popular in Alaska, but no longer is. The answer, however, appears to be Governor Dave Freudenthal of Wyoming, who when his approval was last tested back in August, was viewed favorably by some 81 percent of voters.

What makes this more remarkable is that Freudenthal is a Democrat -- something which a only 26 percent of Wyoming voters are (52 percent are Republicans). On the other hand, Freudenthal has one big advantage: Wyoming is a small state, and as our own Andrew Gelman has noted, it seems to be much easier to maintain higher approval scores when you have fewer constituents to please.

1. Dave Freudenthal (D-Wyoming)
2. Charlie Crist (R-Florida)
3. M. Jodi Rell (R-Connecticut)
4. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R-Utah)
5. Mike Beebe (D-Arkansas)
6. Mitch Daniels (R-Indiana)
7. John Lynch (D-New Hampshire)
8. Phil Bredesen (D-Tennessee)
9. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio)
10. Rick Perry (R-Texas)
11. Bobby Jindal (R-Louisiana)
12. Brad Henry (D-Oklahoma)
13. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota)
14. Pat Quinn (D-Illinois)
15. Jay Nixon (D-Missouri)
16. Linda Lingle (R-Hawaii)
17. Dave Heineman (R-Nebraska)
18. Jack Markell (D-Delaware)
19. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia)
20. Ed Rendell (D-Pennsylvania)
21. Sonny Perdue (R-Georgia)
22. Brian Schweitzer (D-Montana)
23. Bob Riley (R-Alabama)
24. Jan Brewer (R-Arizona)
25. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minnesota)
26. Jim Douglas (R-Vermont)
27. Mark Sanford (R-South Carolina)
28. Joe Manchin III (D-West Virginia)
29. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kansas)
30. Steve Beshear (D-Kentucky)
31. Martin O'Malley (D-Maryland)
32. Chet Culver (D-Iowa)
33. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-California)
34. Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota)
35. Beverly Perdue (D-North Carolina)
36. Sarah Palin (R-Alaska)
37. Bill Ritter (D-Colorado)
38. Haley Barbour (R-Mississippi)
39. John Corzine (D-New Jersey)
40. John Baldacci (D-Maine)
41. Ted Kulongoski (D-Oregon)
42. Bill Richardson (D-New Mexico)
43. Christine Gregoire (D-Washington)
44. Butch Otter (R-Idaho)
45. Jim Doyle (D-Wisconsin)
46. Donald Carcieri (R-Rhode Island)
47. Jennifer Granholm (D-Michigan)
48. Deval Patrick (D-Massachusetts)
49. Jim Gibbons (R-Nevada)
50. David Peterson (D-New York) 

[HAnnA MArin County]

And Henry is behind the pro-secessionist Rick Perry, who's just as partisan if not more than Jindal. Agreed, Oklahoma is a crazy state. I've never been there but from the way people talk about it on here, it seems like a scary place - it must be like running in Nazi Germany there. But at least Democrats there know how to pick a good presidential candidate when they see one. (See Oklahoma Democratic Primary, 2008). But at the same time, I'm intrigued as to how John Edwards received 10 percent of the vote in the primary there. If you choose to play the bigotry card, these must be extremely conservative people who wouldn't vote for a black man or a woman. That's insane.  But, Oklahoma is the home state of Carrie Underwood so there's something good that's come from the Sooner State

I'm glad to see my Governor ranked so highly at #15. That's much better than #49 when we had that douche bag Matt Blunt, who was just above Mr. Corruption Ernie Fletcher of Kentucky.