Bringing Up the Rear...

I can almost hear Fred Thompson breathing a sigh of relief. "Last place! Can I quit now?" He even got beat by Ron Paul, who'll be able to spin his fifth place as a relative triumph. After all, Paul could end up within a few hundred votes of Rudy Giuliani. Not too shabby for a so-called fringe candidate. As for erstwhile front runner Rudy, could this be the beginning of the end? Sure looks like it. It's hard to imagine him suddenly surging in South Carolina or Nevada. Maybe one or two Super Tuesday wins, but Rudy ain't no comeback kid.

On the Dem side... who knew Mike Gravel was still in the race? Who even knew he was running in the first place? Then there's Dennis Kucinich, who is probably going to stick around longer than that annoying drunk dude at the holiday party. Kucinich strikes me as the kind of guy who doesn't take a hint very well. That's okay though; it cracks me up how uncomfortable the other candidates look around him at the debates. The guy I feel sorry for is Bill Richardson. In another time -- maybe in a parallel universe -- Richardson would be a solid Democratic front runner. He's smart, experienced, respected, moderate, laid back, etc. But in '08 he's just not capturing anyone's imagination. Well he's capturing 5% or so of New Hampshire's imagination, which ain't enough. See you again in four years, Bill.