Wednesday Roundup (Dems)

This week's take on the Demo contenders for the White House...

1. (Shockingly) John Edwards: He had a great showing in an Iowa straw poll about ten days ago, "his" candidates did well in the Iowa primaries, and if (for some silly reason) the minimum wage becomes a serious issue, no one is better positioned to capitalize than Edwards. He's still, as I've noted before, the union darling - he's also a young, handsome populist who caters well to the base instincts (er...base's instincts?)
2. Hillary Clinton: Considering the lack of a really strong Senate candidate in the Empire State - and who ever volunteers to be the sacrificial lamb? - Hillary is able to both fundraise for herself and for others, building a fat warchest and loads of IOUs...one potential pitfall for her will be the Iraq debate, if of course her party can ever figure out a common position. Of course the looming, and damning, question is whether or not she can be succesful in the retail politics so crucial in Iowa and New Hampshire.
3. Mark Warner: Still popular, interesting, and wealthy, but he's not exactly a rockstar right now. His heavy-handed attempts to win the love of the Kossacks at YearlyKos appear to some to have backfired, making them suspicious of his intent. Meanwhile, he seems to have found it difficult to stay relevant while out of office - also hard to maintain the necessary profile. Rumor has it he had a succesful fundraiser in Georgetown Monday night, but while schmoozing the big-dollar donors is important, more important is connecting with the average voter.
4. Evan Bayh: Bayh, in the Senate, is having trouble staying relevant but he's still got an impressive resume and good credentials; if he's truly serious about any sort of run he needs to make some noise on some big issue soon. Hopefully we'll have fundraising numbers soon...
5. John Kerry: Don't ask me what I'm thinking, just look at the fawning attention he's been receiving from the anti-war left lately. These folks are the ones that vote in the primaries! But he's still got the scent of spoiled goods about him, a scent that may be impossible to shake and eventually damning.

Others, in no particular order:

• Tom Vilsack: Vilsack too will soon face the relevancy problem as he'll be term-limited out of office in January. It's unclear even if he'll be able to play any real role as a kingmaker in 2008, considering that primary voters pretty much ignored his endorsements.
• Barack Obama: The man's slowly lining up consultants - he's too young to be a serious candidate, but would be a great VP pick...

Daschle, Clark, Feingold, and Richardson are out there, but I don't see any of them as all that serious at present.