Former Iowa Governor and Democratic Presidential Candidate Tom Vilsack dropped out of the 2008 Presidential Race today citing financial constraints as the "only" reason for his decision. Apparently the campaign has been having financial constraints since Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama entered the races in mid to late January after which all the big donors flooded away from the "lower tier" candidates. Hillary is a money making machine. She has raised by far more money than any other candidate and the money just keeps on piling up, such as her "One Million in One Week Campaign" on her website. As of this afternoon, Hillary has raised over $450,000 with this online-only campaign. 

During his announcement speech, Vilsack pointed out how discontent he was at the fact that the campaigns these days have been so vigorously focused on money that candidates like himself just don't have the resources to continue. It appears as though Vilsack won't be the first candidate. It seems only the very beginning of the race as John McCain and Rudy Giuliani are still in the "Exploratory Committee" phases of their campaigns.  It is interesting to observe how Clinton and Obama have completely dominated the scene, more so after Obama officially announced 2 weeks ago. The latest feud between Obama and Clinton that broke into the news 2 days ago just further displays how the Democratic primary race is dominated by these two politicos. 

It is safe to assume that Vilsack won't be the first early defector. Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and Wesley Clark all seem to be on the radar of extinction especially the latter 2 because they seem to not be getting the endorsements and and financial resources that a nationwide presidential campaign demands. Opinion polls of who voters would most likely vote for within the Democratic primary have not really budged, and if anything, Hillary's numbers are growing. Her favorability nationwide has never been higher at 58% and the amount of people who say that a woman will be elected President within the next 5 years (including the 2008 and 2012 Presidential election) is at an all-time high of 2 out of 3 Americans. This actually has gone up from 50% back in 2005. This displays Hillary's growing fan base as people begin to see her as a viable, strong, serious, and most importantly winnable candidate. A solid majority of Americans just dont like Mitt Romney, John McCain and most of the other Republican candidates out there so basically the 2008 race is all about which candidate the Democrats choose.

The race is starting to heat up and the Hillary doubters are starting to fizzle back in droves. Let's not forget John Edwards. His campaign though seems to be at a standstill. It seems Americans just don't see him as a serious Presidential contender. His numbers haven't budged. He also has not been getting nearly the amount of publicity as Hillary and Obama have. If anything, Edwards has been getting negative publicity due to his recent firings of two campaign bloggers who were involved in an inflammatory anti-Catholic scandal. 

The Republicans: what to say about them? One might be intrigued enough to visit John McCain's "Exploratory Committee" website and notice how morbid, dark, and depressing it is. As we all know, image is key in politics these days and Hillary and Obama both have red, white and blue all over their websites. McCain, on the other hand, seems to like black and white. The organization of the site is also terrible, and his campaign video on the front evokes Nazi-like nationalistic propaganda. Mitt Romney seems to be in trouble with the Christian Right for his 1994 pro-gay, then 2003 anti-gay flip flopping accident. From current analysis, the Evangelical Christians are dissatisfied with Giuliani because he is not even a social conservative by any means and he refuses to pander to them, and also dissatisfied with McCain's reluctance to support a Federal Marriage Amendment. It seems the Republican Party is on the verge of collapse with this race between the more moderate Giuliani-esque fiscal conservatives and the more staunchly socially conservative Romney's, Tom Tancredo's, and Sam Brownback's of America. And who didn't see this coming? Even Mary Cheney did.

Published: February 23, 2007