The likely 2008 Democratic Presidential candidates are
Hillary Clinton(NY)
John Edwards(NC)
John Kerry(MA)
Joe Biden(DE)
Bill Richardson(NM)
Wesley Clark(AR)
Mark Warner(VA)
Evan Bayh(IN)

Based on recent public opinion polls the top tier candidates are Hillary Clinton,John Edwards and John Kerry based on national name recognition.

Biden,Richardson,Clark,Warner,and Bayh are underdogs.

Joe Biden is the only insurgent candidate whose poll numbers are at the 5% mark.

Richardson,Clark,Warner and Bayh are below 5%.

The front runners(Hillary and Kerry)are lousy general election candidates. Both are hated by 50% of the electorate- both will energize the Democratic Base.
That leaves us
John Edwards(NC)
Joe Biden(DE)
Bill Richardson(NM)
Wesley Clark(AR)
Mark Warner(VA)
Evan Bayh(IN)

John Edwards and Mark Warner lack foriegn policy/national security experience- FP/NS experience is necessary in a post 9-11 world

That leaves us
Joe Biden(DE)
Bill Richardson(NM)
Wesley Clark(AR)
Evan Bayh(IN)

Clark(AR)lacks political experience- Has not held any prevouis elected office- Governor,Senator,Congressman. Has no domestic policy experience.

That leaves us

Joe Biden(DE)
Bill Richardson(NM)
Evan Bayh(IN)

Evan Bayh(IN)is not that popular with the progressive liberal base of the Democratic Party-according to SURVEY USA- Bayh has a 62% approval rating among Liberal voters
Richardson has a 70% approval rating and Biden has a 79% approval rating.

That leaves us

Joe Biden (DE)
Bill Richardson(NM)

Both Biden and Richardson have been involved in major controversies

Biden(DE)- Plagarism scandal which occured during the 1988 Presidential Campaign.

Richardson(NM)-Wen Ho Lee(Los Alamos)-occured during Richardson' tenure as Energy Secretary.

Between Biden(DE)and Richardson(NM)- The question one must ask is which candidate can compete in all 50 states.

Biden and Richardson are favored to win all of the states Kerry carried in 2004 including NH,WI,PA,MI,MN,and OR. plus IA and NM,the two states that narrowly went for Gore in 2000 and Bush in 2004 will vote Democratic in 2008.

The biggest question one must ask is which candidate will do well in republican leaning battleground states like

Missouri,Virginia,and Arkansas.

They are few ethnic minority voters in MO,VA,and AR. voters in those states tend to be conservative on social issues. Voters will have a tough time supporting a minority candidate like Bill Richardson(NM)

The 2008 Democratic Presidential Nominee will be US Senator Joe Biden of Delaware.

Joe Biden is the Senior Democratic US Senator from Delaware- Slight Democratic Leaning State in the Mid-Atlantic Region.

Most Democratic Presidents were from the Mid-Atlantic Region
Van Buren(NY)
Buchanan(PA)
Cleveland(NY)
Wilson(NJ)
Roosevelt(NY)

Biden is a Senior Democrat on the Senate Foriegn Relations and Senate Judiciary Commitee. He has strong law and order,and national security credentials. He is a great orator.

Joe Biden's Vice Presidential runningmate should be Wesley Clark- The former 2004 Democratic presidential candidate.and Former US Military General/NATO allied supreme commander.

Clark will help Biden energize the liberal base of the Democratic Party. Clark will help Biden compete or win couple of Southern States- AR,VA,and FL.

a Biden/Clark ticket give Democrats credibilty on foriegn policy and national security issues.

Probably the most electable candidates in 2008 would be a Hagel-McCain ticket on the Republican side and a Mark Warner-? for the Democrats.

Forget Hillary. As others have stated, I believe accurately, she has way too much baggage with Bill's lingering peccadilloes plus lots of women, Democrats included, do not like her.

The other names bandied about and likely to get big support from the Christian Right are of course Brownback of Kansas and possibly Frist if he ever clears up his HCA stock sales and blind trust problems.

Then, there's always that dark horse who could come out of nowhere. Someone like Wesley Clark, for example, got a lot of attention before he faded back to where he started -- nowhere. I complained to some of my Democratic friends that his entrance into the presidential race was sort of like looking for another Bobby Fischer -- mainly a grabbing at straws with high hopes and a mistaken belief that all the Dems had to do to counter Bush's solid support of the Iraq War at that time would be enough to get him the nomination. So, he won one state primary -- big deal.

Right now, if I were betting on anyone it would be Chuck Hagel GOP and Mark Warner for the Dems. But who knows, maybe there will be another Bobby Fischer?

Actually, McCain and Hagel would make a sensible pairing in some good ways. They're both more moderate Republicans, Vietnam veterans, and have some record of being reform-minded and independent/mavericks. They've both come out with strong criticism of BushCo in some areas (e.g. McCain's anti-torture amendment & Hagel's assessment that the situation in Iraq is a disaster). I think both command some real respect from voters and are perceived to be people of integrity (a bit overly so for McCain in my opinion). I wouldn't vote for them because I'm a Democrat and they don't represent what I believe in, but I do think they could make a credible and competitive ticket.

BUT: Senators don't get elected president.

http://sandwichrepair.blogspot.com

How about a McCain-Hagel ticket?

Absolutley not. The guy has lost lots of support in the past two years. He was great around 9/11 and was a voice that gave dems some sort of backbone but now he's just a corporate bitch. I'd like to find a dem who IS actually a Man or Woman of the People and not another millionaire tryinig to put forward an agenda that is completely out of touch with the middle class.

At this point, there are not many Dems I would like to see run. 1 person that I have zero enthusiasm for is Senator Biden.

To me, Mr. Biden has shown very little leadership and, when it comes to the war, he seems to be bending over backwards to sound like a Republican.

The next Democratic candidate is not going to be a person who feels the need to apologize for his party affiliation (a la Gore and Kerry). He/she needs to be somebody who has a clear vision on where this country should go, who is proud of Democratic principals and who will not be afraid to stand up and make courageous stands.

Biden has not shown much leadership in my book. For his stand on Iraq alone I would only vote for him as the lesser of 2 evils.

There are three people in the race for 08 no matter how you slice it, Kerry, Clinton, and one of Vilsack, Biden, Richardson, Feingold, Bayh, Warner, Clark, Edwards.

Kerry represents foreign policy experience and the idea that the democrats ought not reinvent the wheel every four years
Clinton, well, represents the idea that hopefully Hillary will let Bill Clinton be president again. Right now clearly its Hillary's to lose.
The third is the fresh-face. Tnere is only room for one of these guys so long as HRC and JK have the money and spotlight of the party locked up.
Interestingly nobody has made a claim as the Howard Dean outsider guy. Actually Feingold is probably the most likely to do this--he'll catch fire in 2007 only to flame out.

Hillary is going to get creamed. Only liberal women like her. Any woman who cherishes motherhood will run screaming from her.
And have you heard that shrill voice of hers? Yuck! Can't wait till she starts talking about "the common good" again! The presidency is too valuable for a "my turn" president. Any woman can be a leftist. We need someone who can think outside the box.

Get somebody else--somebody who deserves it. Up to now, nobody can tell me how Hillary is more qualified than anyone else--much less any other woman. She is all hype.

But, you can count on the Washington Post to carry her water for her when she does seek the nomination. She just may squeak in by charging up the Deaniacs--the only constituency in the Democratic Party anymore. And we can rely on them to vote for her just because she is a woman--the worst reason ever.

We'll see how she does elsewhere. After she opens her mouth to please them (assuming her lack of a "y" chromosome will allow her to take no stand on any issue so that she doesn't get hurt when she goes to "play church" in the south), then you will see an Exodus greater than that of the Children of Israel (I know the biblical references will offend 78% of you guys).

Ah well, at least she can be allowed to dream.

This is not news. Biden announced maybe a year ago that he was running for President in 2008.

And yes, senators don't get elected president.

Maybe Joe Biden could bring that other serial plagiarist, Molly Ivins, on board as his speech writer.

Biden's biggest liability may be that he's a Senate Democrat, and few of them have done much to impress voters in the past couple years. Besides, the last incumbent Congress member elected president was JFK in 1960.

Biden is running? Really? In which party?
Like Liebermouth of Connecticut he is so
smug, mentally lazy and cowardly, he would
never be "my kind of Democrat."

They are both Republicans in Democratic
drag. Let them crawl across the aisle.
Otherwise it looks like I will gladly
vote for Nader for the third straight
time. Why? He's my kind of progressive
Democrat!

Ion Laskaris, Burlington, Vermont
+ website: iclrevusa.com

Puhleeeze! Biden for president? I don't think so. His smirk is worse than Bush's and he's so far off track that he can't see that in supporting Bush's Iraq War his waffling is worse than Kerry's.

Besides, anyone who has followed the trends in the last 15 years ought to know there is no way on God's green Earth that someone from Delaware can win a single state in the Bible Belt South. Whatever appeal Biden has he will have to confine it to north of the Mason-Dixon Line and then hope he can reel in the Midwest -- if he is unlucky enough to be the Democratic nominee.

He'll start off with a 180 to 200 electoral vote handicap sans the South and chances are, he won't connect with either Midwest farm states or independent-minded Mountain states.

Where does that leave Biden? Up a creek without a paddle and with the rest of the country suffering four more years of a shoo-in for almost any Republican nominee.
Almost anyone, that is except Dick Cheney. In that case, even Dennis Kucinich could win. I can just hear Limbaugh now singing Kumbaya!

(corrections to my 7:17 post)
GOP powers==GOP powers that be
recentingly==recently

I'll blame my errors on the lack of a preview option, the liberal media, and the Clintons. j/k :)

In theory, he'd be a great candidate, but he's not my first choice, for logistical reasons. Dems have to start garnering more support from Midwestern and Southern states. Hillary would also be a great candidate, but I suspect that there hordes of Republicans and Democrats who wouldn't vote for her, due to her gender. For that same reason, I don't trust the polls that say she'd beat such and such. I don't know the numbers, but the vast majority of America's most recent presidents have been Southerners outside of Congress. I suspect that McCain will get the GOP nomination, and Biden wouldn't do well against him. Remember that McCain isn't a typical chickenhawk Repub. Also, he's a centrist, and I can't say at this juncture that I certainly wouldn't not vote for him. Other than McCain's anti-abortion stance and the appearance that he gets soft when the GOP powers demand his support, he's a fairly solid candidate for president. It was even Clinton-esque when he recentingly backed the pardoning of the African-American boxer (his name alludes me).

His vote for the bankruptcy bill means that not only will I not vote for him, but I will work my ass off to make sure no one else does either.

Richardson and Warner - also my perfect combination. That would be so amazing...

Biden is a flashy poseur from way back.

The man is not the least bit presidential, is a Senator with plenty of votes for the GOP to mine, is a blue stater meaning he won't be appealing to either southerwestern or southern states, comes from a state that has so few delegates it's not even funny, and looks terrible from side view, including his extra faux whites and his plugs.

His plagerizing history, his sizeable ego, and his war hawk finger in the wind Iraq stances makes this life long politician's politician almost a joke.

Thanks but no thanks.

Voting for the Bankruptcy bill was not "moderate", it was foolhearty, and smelled from corporate self interest.

Biden runs, and I run the other way. And it won't be just me.

I'd take Hillary before I would touch Biden with a 10 foot pole!

Warner has no foreign policy/national security experience at all. So even if Warner may seem like a great candidate, just know that the ever so handy War on Terror rages on, and if we Democrats still don't understand that we lost 2004 because of the security issue, then nominate this guy, and see if the VP that he will have to select to plug up the hole in his resume will go along for the ride.

Warner is no Bill Clinton, and 2008 will not be a 1993 replay. If some insist on Mark Warner, just make sure that you have located Ross Perot and pinned him down for another run, and that Bin Laden has been captured or proven dead. Otherwise, buy a hammer for the nails on the Democratic party's coffin.

So long as Biden wants to send more troops to Iraq, as does McCain, he might as well forget running for president. We need to get out of Iraq, period.

I like Biden, but I am a bigger fan of Governors Richardson (D-NM) and Warner. I am hoping they will challenge Clinton for the nomination. They have a better chance of winning, especially Richardson.

I certainly hope he runs. He's what I consider a "top tier" candidate for the Democrats.

Had he run last year, he'd be in the White House today and Mr. Bush would be sitting, shell-shocked, on his Crawford stoop.

Today's top story! Biden is running for president.

In other news, scientists confirmed today that, yes, the sky really IS blue.

http://www.hillnews.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/062905/biden.html

http://www.nbc5.com/unit5investigates/4769945/detail.html

Biden's finance chair is already under indictment. This guy is dead on arrival.

He is running to hear himself talk.

Yeah he may be all that which MF wrote - however he does not stir voters....

Mark Warner would be interesting, though

Alreday said he's running on national tv. how is this news?

Biden is a solid guy, no doubt.

He has gravitas that comes naturally, not the scripted "pompitas" of John Kerry.

The trick will be to whip Deaniacs into a lather to support a moderate. Is that even possible? Who knows. Clinton did it in 1992, get the far left fired up that is.

Meantime, you won't believe what the current WH occupants are up to:

"Rove out, Rover in; scaled-down agenda includes a "war on gingivitis" and plans to occupy Aruba."

http://www.eyewitnessmuse.com/musings.php?p=181

Will Mark Warner try a run in '08?

This is great! Biden is a great candidate because he's moderate, very knowlegeable in foreign policy, very down-to-earth and amiable without talking above people's heads and shouldn't be perceived as a diehard liberal like Hilary or Kerry.