2008 Already?

I suppose it's inevitable that the Presidential horse race has begun. Some folks have dropped out (Warner, Feingold, Frist), others have opted in (Vilsack, McCain, Biden). My favorite, Russ Feingold, will not be a candidate, so I'm taking a close look at everybody and I really haven't made a decision. Here are some initial impressions:

• I'm intrigued by Wesley Clark and I'm glad to see that he has learned somewhat from 2004, when he entered unready and too late. Clark has serious national security bona fides, and coming from the military, he has internalized the concepts of shared sacrifice and equal opportunity. I think he would be formidable at the top of the ticket or as VP.

• John Edwards clearly has the best road to the nomination, having won South Carolina before, having never left Iowa (where if he comes close to home-grown Vilsack, he's a winner), and having strong union support for Nevada. I like his focus on poverty and human rights around the world. He's almost reinvented himself as the second coming of Jimmy Carter. Of course, that didn't work out entirely well the first time.

• The 800-pound gorilla is Al Gore. I may be misjudging this, but if he got into the race I'm not sure he could be stopped. The question is whether he could win a general election. His approval ratings are still fairly low but climbing.

• Obama frankly still has to impress me, although if the fact that his middle name is Hussein is all the Republicans have in their arsenal to attack him, then maybe he can't be beat. I do think he'd attract young people like no candidate since Bobby Kennedy.

• Hillary is still the insider's choice, although whether she can get out of the primary is an open question. This is funny:

Noted: the web team behind Stop Her Now (anti-Hillary site) also built Sen. John McCain's exploratory committee site.

The big boys are obviously trying to knock her down, though I'm not entirely sure why.

• Everyone else on the Democratic side is fodder, save for maybe Bill Richardson. Biden, Kerry, Dodd, Vilsack: they're going nowhere. I'll give everyone a look and probably pick whoever most matches with my policy beliefs.

Too early to tell on the Republican side, though I've recently posted about Newt and McCain. Mitt Romney may be something of a wildcard, although I did find it amusing that today he picked as his economic wonks two of the most dishonest hacks from Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, including the guy who said outsourcing was good for the economy. Ezra Klein in the post linked above seems to like them, but everything I've heard come out of Greg Mankiw's mouth has been unbelievably wrong.

More as it develops!