Cattle Call 2004: 5/30

Last week's rankings: 1)Gephardt, 2)Dean, 3) Kerry, 4) Graham, 5) Lieberman, 6) Edwards, 7) Sharpton, 8) Moseley-Braun, and 9) Kucinich.

This is a late Cattle Call, but to be honest, it was a quiet week.

This week's rankings:

1. Dick Gephardt
Not much doing here, but given the utter quiet in the whole pack, Gephardt keeps his top spot. Vilsack named him one of the top three contenders (along with Kerry and Dean).

2. John Kerry
Kerry regains his narrow lead over Dean thanks to the latest ARG poll, which has him with a 26-19 lead over his bitter rival.

3. Howard Dean
He's doing his thing. It seems that those that get a good look at him go away favorably impressed. Some are turned off by his "angry" schtick, others are rejuvinated by it.

4. Joe Lieberman
Leads in Arizona, South Carolina and Michigan polls -- all important early states. Michigan is particularly important since it's one of Gephardt's "must-win" states. Much of it is name recognition, obviously, since none of the field has spent time in either of those two states. Once the pack campaigns in a particular area, Lieberman's number invariably drop.

5. Bob Graham
His "Bush knew" schtick is starting to get more attention. The thing to watch is whether it will gain traction. What Graham should do is leak the classified information he has on 9-11 from the Senate's investigation. What's Bush going to do, have Ashcroft arrest him? Heck, that would be worth more good press with the primary electorate than anything he would *ever* be able to buy.

6. John Edwards
Sigh. Edwards goes through these weird cycles -- he drops, drops, drops, then has a great week. But I can't remember the last great week he had.

7. Al Sharpton
Still kicking Bush ass.

8. Carol Moseley-Braun
Seriously, time to drop.

9. Kucinich
Sigh...

Others: Clark (might join the race late)

Posted May 30, 2003 07:25 AM | Comments (215)