Politics

Presidential Election: Presidential Candidates 2008 - Election Coverage

Republican Presidential Candidates Ranking

Written by Gaurav Bhola, MSM, Managing Editor & Community Manager on August 29, 2007 11:58 am EST

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The presidential election of 2008 has a gamut of newbies and known faces as presidential candidates. I see the current landscape littered with so much misinformation that I thought it my duty to distill the issues from non-issues and information from misinformation.

I hope to present to you a breakdown of the presidential candidates, their positions for the 2008 presidential election, and any other topic I believe to be important. So, while I write about other topics of interest for Gimmie the Scoop; I will do my very best to present election coverage till the end of the 2008 presidential election.

The goal of my posts will be to filter the soundbytes and present to you a viable alternative to the popular media; unlike, what you may see on CNN or FOX and read about in newspapers or weekly dallies like Time or Newsweek. Today, I present to you general bio’s of the 2008 Republican presidential candidates. I have ranked them according to viability in getting their party’ nomination. Of course, these rankings are not static, they may change as more information becomes available during the primaries.

1. Mitt Romney

Born: March 12, 1947

Mitt Romney is the former governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, from 2003 to 2007. He was elected in 2002 and didnt seek re-election in 2006. He was born in Detroit, Michigan to former Michigan Governor George Romney and 1970 U.S. Senate candidate Lenore Romney.

Romney is the co-founder and former CEO of Bain Capital, a private equity investment company. His net worth is estimated to be upwards of $200 million. He is a graduate of Harvard Law and Business School. Romney married his high school girlfriend, Ann Davies in 1968. They have five children and are practicing Mormons. In 1994, he had a failed bid for the Senate running against well entrenched Ted Kennedy.

2. John McCain

Born: August 29, 1936

John McCain was born in Panama, in an area in possession of the U.S. Since both his parents were US. Born citizens and the Panama Canal Zone was a U.S. possession, he has met the eligibility requirements to run for President. He is a former Vietnam Prisoner of War and one of five Senators in the U.S. Congress that are Vietnam veterans. He retired with rank of Captain from the Navy in 1981. In 1986, he was elected to the U.S. Senate from the state of Arizona.

McCain is married to his second wife Cindy Hensley McCain, whom he met in 1979, while married to his first wife Carol McCain. He divorced Carol in 1980 and married Cindy, heiress to Arizona-based Hensley & Co., the nation’s second-largest Anheuser-Busch distributor. McCain has seven children from both marriages. This is his second run for president, after an unsuccessful bid in 2000 against George W. Bush.

3. Rudy Giuliani

Born: May 28, 1944

Rudy Giuliani is the former two-term Mayor of New York City. He was first elected to the post in 1993 and re-elected in 1997. Giuliani has extensive experience in law enforcement as an U.S. Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. He built his reputation upon successful prosecution of the Five Heads of the New York mafia families and junk bond trader Michael Milken.

Giuliani embarked upon his political service as a Democrat in the mid-1960s. He had volunteered for Robert F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1968. Later, in 1975 he became an independent. Again in 1980, he switched his political registration to Republican and has remained Republican since then. Giuliani was born in Brooklyn, New York to parents of Italian descent. In 1968, he graduated cum laude with a Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law.

Giuliani has been married three times. In 1968 he married his second cousin Regina Peruggi. Giuliani got the marriage annulled in 1982, after starting an affair with television personality Donna Hanover in the same year. In 2002, Giulani and Hanover ended their 18 year marriage, after accusations surfaced of the Mayor’s elicit affairs with his communication’s director Cristyne Lategano and pharmaceutical representative Judith Nathan.

Consequently, he married Judith Nathan in 2003. He has two children from his previous marriage to Hanover, both of whom are estranged from their father and are not involved in his presidential campaign.

4. Mike Huckabee

Born: August 24, 1955

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas, having served from 1996 to 2007. He was born in Hope, Arkansas. He is married to Janet Huckabee and they have two children together. After receiving his degree from Ouachita Baptist University, he attended Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Huckabee is an ordained Baptist minister and former pastor of several Southern Baptist churches.

5. Sam Brownback

Born: September 12, 1956

Sam Brownback is the senior Senator from Kansas. He was born in Parker, Kansas. He graduated from University of Kansas in 1982 with a Juris Doctor. After holding various state government positions, he won election to the United States House of Representatives in 1994. In 1996, Brownback won a special election for the seat of outgoing Senator Bob Dole.

He married into the wealthy family of current wife Mary Stauffer. They have two adopted children, in addition to their three children. Brownback was raised a Methodist, then became an Evangelical, and was finally converted to Catholicism by Opus Dei.

6. Duncan Hunter

Born: May 31, 1948

Duncan Hunter has represented California’s 52nd congressional district since 1981. He was born in Riverside, California. Hunter received his Juris Doctor from the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in 1976. He married the former Lynne Layh in 1973 and they have two children.

Hunter served in the Vietnam War with the 173rd Airborne and 75th Army Rangers. He is the former chair of the Armed Services Committee.

7. Tom Tancredo

Born: December 20, 1945

Tom Tancredo has represented District 6 of Colorado since 1999. He was born in Denver, Colorado to parents of Italian immigrants. He received his degree in political science from the University of Northern Colorado in 1969.

He married Jackie Tancredo in 1977 and they have two children. Tancredo has taken an active role in politics since his appointment by Ronald Reagan to be the regional representative in Denver for the Department of Education. He served in that role from 1981 until 1992.

8. Fred Thompson

Born: August 19, 1942

Fred Thompson is a former assistant U.S. attorney, Senator, professional lobbyist, and well-known character actor. He won Tennessee’s Senate seat vacated by Al Gore in 1994, remaining Senator until 2003. He decided not to seek re-election due to personal reasons. He has lobbied in Washington D.C. on behalf of American and foreign companies between 1975 and 1993, earning him more than $1 million in income. Thompson was born in Sheffield, Alabama. He received a Juris Doctor from Vanderbilt in 1967.

Thompson got married in 1959, at the age of 17, to Sarah Elizabeth Lindsey. They divorced in 1985 and have two surviving children. Their daughter Betsy died in 2002 from an overdose of prescription drugs. He has had several personal relationships, most notably with country singer Lorrie Morgan before marrying Republican consultant Jeri Kehn in 2002. They have two children together.

9. Ron Paul

Born: August 20, 1935

Ron Paul was born in Green Tree, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1961 and specialized in obstetrics/gynecology. He was drafted into the military and served as flight surgeon during the Vietnam War, never serving directly in Vietnam. Paul married Carol Wells in 1957 and they have five children.

Paul was first elected to Congress from District 22 in Texas when he won a special election in 1976, a seat vacated by Democrat Robert Casey. However, he lost in the general election six months later. He was intermittently elected to Congress in the 1970s and 1980s. He ran for president of the United States in 1998 as a Libertarian while registered as a Republican. Since 1996, he has represented District 14 in the House of Representatives.

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4 Responses to “Presidential Election: Presidential Candidates 2008 - Election Coverage”

Kevin Says:
September 6th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
I appreciate the straitforward information but I think your listing in order of “Viability” is way ascew. To my knowledge Rudy ranks first (much to my chagrin) and to place Fred Thompson below “also rans” like Hunter and Tancredo is a bit much.
Iqbal Halani Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:56 am
OBAMA HAS ALREADY WON THE NOMINATION !!

HERE IS HOW !!

Total delegates(incl supers) = 3,973 ,less 313+54 Florida and Michigan(incl supers) =3,606
The adjusted winning requirement (both camps have agreed to exclude Michigan & Florida) should therefore be 2,025 required , divide by original 3973 delegate total , multiply 3,606 (revised delegate total by excluding Florida & Michigan non voters) =1,838 delegates
Obama already has 1,742 delegates NOW. The extra delegates required are ONLY 96 , who may be easily expected from the coming primaries and undecided supers !!
juicebox Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:44 am
While one would like to believe the nomination was that easy, they have yet to go to conference and the ball is still in anyone’s court. Not all delegates are required to vote for who their constituents voted for, and Hillary has not backed down.

So it will be interesting to see what happens.
Gaurav Bhola, MSM, Managing Editor & Community Manager Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 8:56 am
I think we still have to await the results of the next few primaries. Also, Hillary has narrowed her lead in the polls, latest: Obama 49%, Hillary 42%. The previous double digit gap has narrowed for her.

One thing that I can be certain of in politics is, Nothing is Certain.”