Game On

The lame duck, unpopular president has presented his next to last State of the Union address. It is time for all political geeks to turn more attention to the 2008 presidential nomination race. With no incumbent president or vice-president in the race there is quite a list of candidates. This post will just be my most current list of definite and possible candidates for both parties. Follow-up posts will provide a bit more on the race as it sits now with over 3/4 of the country ignoring all of this while they follow "Heroes," "24," and "American Idol."

Definite Democratic Candidates:
Sen. Joe Biden
Sen. Hillary Clinton
Sen. Christopher Dodd
Former Sen. John Edwards
Rep. Dennis Kucinich
Sen. Barack Obama
Gov. Bill Richardson
Former Gov. Tom Vilsack

Possible Democratic Candidates:
Former General Wesley Clark
Oscar nominee Al Gore


Definite Republican Candidates:
Sen. Sam Brownback
Rep. Duncan Hunter
Former Gov. Mike Huckabee
Sen. John McCain
Rep. Ron Paul
Former Gov. Mitt Romney
Rep. Tom Tancredo
Former Gov. Tommy Thompson
Former Gov. Jim Gilmore


Possible Republican Candidates:
Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani
Former Rep. Newt Gingrich
Sen. Chuck Hagel
Former Governor George Pataki


The differentiation between definite and possible is simply whether or not they have formed the required exploratory committee.

Next: Who on the list are real contenders as the race begins

Update 1/25/07: Add Gilmore to Republican list. He's a former Virginia governor and, yes, I had to look him up to figure out who he is.