Candidate Ratings (Iowa Caucus Edition)

I'm back. Three weeks of chasing grandkids around and cleaning up spills. A good Christmas, but a tiring one. (For the record: my 11-month-old granddaughter is currently the cutest kid in the universe. However, one of the words she learned while visting us was "mine!" This is usually a leading indicator of a real personality, which of course entails a precipitous decline in cuteness.)

I have to say that I'm warming to Obama. Since his position on Iraq is unlikely to matter, one of my most significant negatives against him is going away. He gets big points for his moderate tone. He's incredibly smart--I have no worries about his competetence. I'd prefer an energy plan that's more skewed toward R&D, but the fact that he has an energy plan certainly puts him at an advantage to most of the Republican field.

Here's my latest rating matrix:



Note that Giuliani's starting to drop because he's vanished. Management of one's campaign is a necessary, though certainly not sufficient, indicator of competetence. Rudy's losing steam in that rating, which is by far my largest determinant for choosing a president.