The First Ads Of The 2008 Presidential Election

An independent 527 has started to air the very first ads of the 2008 Presidential election. These ads are running in New Hampshire to promote Hillary Clinton to run. They feature Clinton driving a garbage truck in a cartoon style ad, claiming that she'll need two terms to take out all the garbage from the White House.

Hillary Clinton appears to have raised about $6 million for her presidential bid in 2008. John Kerry, the narrow 2004 loser, still maintains a steady stream of Emails to supporters, and is preparing for another bid in 2008 as well. And Joe Biden and Evan Bayh have expressed some interest. Bayh is associated with a DLC type "centrist" organization called "Third Way", to further his efforts.

Among the Republicans, John McCain may be seen as the front runner among many experts. However his ability not to have his candidacy again derailed in primary states like South Carolina, where strong numbers of Christian conservative voters make up probably most Republican primary voters is still a huge question for McCain. Bill Frist has a well developed PAC, and hopes he could capture a wide cross section of Republican primary voters, both moderate and conservative.

Given the organizational advantages of Clinton and Frist, I would clearly rate these two as the front running candidates most likely to capture their respective nominations at this point in time.