Republican Candidates Power Rankings 8/14/11...

(UPDATE: Tim Pawlenty announced this morning on ABC's This week with Christiane Amanpour that given his performance in the Ames, Iowa straw poll, he will be ending his campaign. )

Quite the week...

Mitt Romney performed well during Thursday's debate, Michelle Bachmann wins the Ames, Iowa straw poll and Rick Perry officially announces his candidacy. How's all of this effect this weeks GOP Power Rankings? Read on...

1) Mitt Romney - Romney remains number one until someone knocks him down a peg or two. So far, no one's laid a glove on him. That may change now that Texas Governor Rick Perry is officially in the hunt. Staying above the fray during Thursday's Fox news debate is smart strategy, but its not a strategy that can last forever. Someone will line him up and attempt to take his head off. If I were his strategist, I might tell him to go on the offensive and not wait for someone to come after him. He's still the front-runner, he's still has the most money and the largest organisation of anyone. Its better to give a punch than take one. Just ask Tim Pawlenty. (Last Ranking: #1)

2) Michelle Bachmann - Winner of the 2011 Ames, Iowa straw poll, Bachmann had a terrific week. On Thursday, she proved she could go toe to toe with Tim Pawlenty, although she got her facts rather mixed up on TPaw's  policies while he was Governor of Minnesota. While edging out Ron Paul for 1st place in Ames, she more than doubled the votes that Pawlenty got, which is great news for her, terrible news for him. Bachmann should be able to hang around for quite a while, which earns her extra chips to use come endorsement time. I doubt she will be the nominee, but she will have a comfy, soft landing somewhere...(Last Ranking: #2) 

3) Rick Perry - The Texas Governor officially announced his intention to pursue the Presidency early Saturday afternoon. None of the candidates are thrilled about this, especially Romney, Bachmann and Santorum. Perry is the worthy opponent Romney has been lacking, while Bachmann and Santorum are lighter, less serious versions of Gov. Perry. His organisation and fundraising are several steps behind the others, but I'm guessing that those who were pushing him will see to it that neither holds him back. (Last Ranking: #3) 

4) Rick Santorum - I know, I know...Santorum finished dead last in both the recent CNN and Fox news polls but both were conducted before last weeks debate. Nonetheless, I felt Santorum did pretty well during the debate, and his 4th place showing in the straw poll is better than I thought he'd do. I still consider him a massive long shot, but if he can keep putting together weeks like the one he just did, he may surprise us all. He's the candidate who's quickly becoming the pain in the ass that no one needs. Perry's entrance hurts him more than most, but Perry isn't really aiming at him, is he? (Last Ranking: #8)

5) Ron Paul - The "Babe Ruth" of straw polls narrowly missed taking first place from Bachmann. Combine this with a solid showing during the debate and it adds up to a reasonably good week for Paul. However, Paul usually does well during the straw poll and then slips in the primaries. His frank remarks about Iran and nuclear weapons during the debate will probably hurt him going forward. I look for Paul to attack Romney, Bachmann and Perry directly next debate as he needs to prove he belongs in the upper tier of candidates. (Last Ranking: #4) 

6) Herman Cain - For someone who basically came out of nowhere to stand on a national stage with some veteran politicians, Cain is doing better than expected. The only other candidate to amass more than 1000 votes, he was only 200 votes behind Santorum, and finished in 5th place. He didn't help himself a great deal during the last debate, so how he campaigns over the next few weeks will be interesting. Does he keep his head down and stay out of the limelight and try and hang around or doe he go on the attack? (Last Ranking: #7) 

7) Tim Pawlenty - Rough week for TPaw. First he barely breaks even in a donneybrook with Michelle Bachmann on the Thursday night debate, but then she kicks his ass in Saturday's Straw Poll, by more than a two to one margin. I know his campaign quickly released a statement that he was staying in the race, but who exactly would donate money to him? If he couldn't rise up to one of the top two slots before Rick Perry was around, what makes anyone think he'll do so now that Perry is on board? There might be one more debate in his future, but he's got to come up with something dramatic in order to survive much longer. (Last Ranking: #6)

8) Sarah Palin - In spite of Mrs. Palin being in Iowa "for the State Fair" of course, its appears that she will not be running. Her camp says a decision will be announced by  the end of Summer. I fully expect her to continue on at Fox News as a commentator. Which is probably best for everyone involved. In spite of what an old classmate thinks, Palin is NOT the answer to any of our problems. She is best at self-promotion and taking cheap shots at Democrats. While I fantasized about her and Gingrich going at it, it's not gonna happen. I look forward to culling her from the GOP herd by month's end. (Hopefully) (Last Ranking: #5) 

9) Newt Gingrich - A pathetic showing in Ames after a fiesty performance in the debate this week doesn't move the needle enough to reconsider his chances. Rick Santorum got over 4 times the votes Newt did while BOTH Bachmann and Paul got more than 12 times the number of votes. Yes, he might be the smartest guy in the room but he has royally screwed this campaign up. Fundraising is a major problem for the former Speaker of the House. How long does he allow this embarrassment to go on? (Last Ranking: #9)

10) John Huntsman - Isn't this a nice new picture of Huntsman I found? Take a good look at it because I think the Huntsman campaign (and his mug shot) will be going away very soon. He did nothing to distinguish himself during the debate and he got 69 more votes in Iowa than I did. Was it really all that bad working for the Obama Administration? China's pretty cool, right? (Last Ranking: #10)

Overall Rankings: (The lower the score, the better...)

(After 5 rankings...)

 

1. Romney - 5
2. Bachmann - 10
3. Perry - 22
4. Cain - 23

5. Pawlenty - 27 (Withdrew from race)
6. Palin - 28
7. Santorum - 34 

8. Paul - 36

9. Huntsman - 44

10. Gingrich - 46






(NOTE: Rankings are compiled by simply adding the rankings each week to a running total of same...)