Who will win the 2008 presidential election?
I think the winner will probably be among these people:
-Hillary Clinton
-Howard Dean
-Guiliani
-McCain
-Condileeza Rice
Any debates on who will win?
Whoever has the most money spent and gets the most media attention.
I’m betting on Carrot Topp.
Can someone explain to me why a great many people seem to think Condaleeza Rice would be a good President? She’s smart and all, but has never held elected office and by accounts doesn’t even want the job.
None of the above. 
From what I understand, the common wisdom among the democrats in the know is Hillary won’t run for a variety of reasons.
Howard Dean, I don’t think has the mass appeal to the un-aligned moderates, and so I don’t think he will win either this time or in 2008. Of all on your list though, he’s probably most likely (I could be wrong and he could win this time…which means HE would be in the driver seat in 2008)
Guiliani…huh?
McCain…my personal favorite and the guy I would vote for this time or in 2008. No chance though. I seriously doubt he will ever run for president again.
Condileeza Rice…double huh?? No chance, no way, no how.
-XT
How about Colin Powell?
The only thing we can be certain about is that it is too early to tell.
Just a few years before he was elected President, Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter had appeared on a quiz show and stumped the panel; it had no idea who he was, nor did most of the American public.
A mere six years before winning the White House, Richard Nixon had lost the race for California Governor and vowed to leave politics forever.
Did the nation-at-large know anything about Bill Clinton in 1987?
From esquimalt
No interest in running from what I understand. Has also blown a good stock of his credibility and good will from a lot of the moderate democrats so probably won’t have the mass appeal needed to win. But probably a moot point, as like I said, he seems unwilling to run.
-XT
Jeb Bush. 
And then there will be the truly bizarre 2016 election, featuring both of G.W.'s daughters running against each other, one as a Republican, one as a Democrat.
Depends on who wins 2004.
George W. Bush
George Bush will handily win re-election in 2004; he’s running at over 50% approval, and the economy is only going to get better and more healthy as time goes on. The only candidate Bush loses to now is the “hypothetical Democrat”, which means once an actual Democrat gets chosen and starts pissing people off (in the way that any blind date goes downhill once you can no longer imagine it’s the perfect match), Bush only gets closer to a blow-out.
Given general economic cycles, things will still be rosy and happy financially in 2008- a recession 5 years after a previous one is rare indeed. So things look good for a Republican successor to Bush. The question is who- Dick Cheney has too much baggage and too bad a ticker to effectively run, so the field opens up wide. Colin Powell probably won’t run- he’s shown no interest, even in years where he was more likely to bowl over all opposition. No one else in Bush’s cabinet is famous enough and young enough.
Chances are the primary fight boils down to Jeb Bush vs. some other Republican governor, but with his brother the President behind him, Jeb easily takes out his opposition and sails to a substantial- but not overwhelming- victory over the Democrats.
But, chances are the 2012 election will be just around a recession, so the Democrats will likely grab power then and keep it for eight more years.
John, now you are making me wonder:
when do recessions occur more, with Democrat or republican administrations?
Powell vs H Clinton with Powell winning. Both say they don’t want the job right now, but that’ll change. Bush/Cheney will win '04, but Cheney will have another “cardiac event” sometime in their second term and resign. Bush will tap Powell for VP and spend the rest of his second term grooming him for Pres.
He’ll serve one term.
“Don’t blame me! I voted for Chastity Bono!”
Bush will likely win in 2004. In which case, the Democratic challenger will almost certainly be Hillary Clinton, unless something happens to deflate her star before then.
If Dick Cheney steps down as VP, the Republican nominee will be whoever the VP is (and I still think Condi Rice is a good candidate for that job). If Cheney is VP, then I don’t think he’ll run for President. That will open the field up to about a zillion different people.
McCain won’t be one of them, I don’t think. I’d love to see the guy run, but he’ll be too old in 2008 (72). That’s 2 years older than Reagan was when he became President, and his age was an issue then.
There are a number of ‘up and coming’ Republicans, any one of which could make a run in 2008. Bill Frist is a good candidate. Depending on how the war on terror goes, Tom Ridge could be a candidate. Guliani could be a possibilty - he’ll be 64 in 2008.
But really - it’s WAY too early. Look back five years from any presidential election and see if the candidates were obvious. Let’s see… In 1995, Bush was a virtual unknown. In 1987, Clinton was a total unknown (hell, he was an unknown in 1990). In 1975, Reagan had lost a nomination to Gerald Ford, and was hosting a radio show. In 1963, Richard Nixon was the guy “You won’t have to kick around any more”. In 1955 John Kennedy was a young man in the hospital, recovering from back surgery and writing a book.
In fact, excluding Vice Presidents who went on to the Presidency, the only President who was a major figure seen as presidential material five years before the election was Eisenhower, because he was the Supreme Allied Commander in WWII. Reagan may count here as well, because even though he was ‘retired’, his popular fight for the nomination made him a national figure.
Oh, and Powell will probably also be too old (71).
In the last 50 years only one Republican president left the unemployment rate better off than it started. That was Regan. Likewise Carter is the democrat who left office with a higher unemployment rate.
Anywais I predict Howard Dean. GWB will probably be the first president in a while who actually decides to run for reelection after getting America involved in a war like Vietnam or the Korean war. If you look at history its rare when going to war actually helped a president. Its more like the reverse of “can’t be against a president in wartime” is true.
Hillary and Powell don’t want the office.
I’ve seen no evidence that Rice wants it.
I’ve seen no evidence that Guiliani wants it. Besides, much of his baggage from his time as mayor would hurt in the Republican primaries. He still has a reputation for being intrusive on personal issues like smoking.
McCain? The Republican leadership really doesn’t like him. On the other hand, he has some claim to being tougher than most other Republican Senators on spending. As the deficit continues to skyrocket, that will start looking better and better.
Kepp in mind this though: remember the Gore vs. Kemp matchup in 2000? No one had heard of Shrub until 1998, when he was the one bright spot amid the GOP’s election disaster.
When Has Hillary Clinton ever publicly stated that she does not want the office of the president?
All Ive ever heard her say is that she wouldnt run in 2004, she has no plans for running, and she wants to focus on her Senate office,
that doesnt mean squat. All it means is that she wants to get some credentials under her belt before she goes into 2008.
“Has no plans to run” means that she clearly chose not to say “plans not to run”.
Here’s a few relative unknowns for 2008:
Tim Pawlenty,Republican Governor of Minnesota
Harold Ford, Democratic Representative
Bill Richardson, Democratic Governor of New Mexico
And although not an unknown, I think that in an unremarkable field Lamar Alexander can be a contender again. He just had the bad timing of running when big names were also running, Bob Dole and then GWB. If an unimpressive Republican field emerges from 2008 for whatever reason, just like has happened today with the Democrats and in 1992 with the Democrats, Alexander could be the best of a weak field and surprise a vulnerable incumbent, assuming a Democrat wins in 2004.