IMHO This is the Repub who would be the hardest to beat... LINK

[Blackhatjack]

http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Hagel_might_run_as_independent__0507.html

Chuck Hagel has the ability to register with the independents/undecideds and unaffiliated voters, and that is a very powerful segment of voters.

It all depends upon whether Hagel unites a desire in the Repub Party to put distance between themselves and the disasterous Bush war in Iraq. That will only occur when the Repubs finally face the reality that they are going to be swept from office unless they come out against the war, help to bring the troops home, and repudiate Bush's policies that have entrenched big spending/big govt.

[bahrbearian]

1. And with his ties to Diebold , he could be impossible to beat.

[rsdsharp]

2. It's ES&S...

but you're right. The corollary to "Never pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel," is "Never run in an election against the guy who owns the vote counting machines."

[TwilightGardener]

3. I think he's waiting to see how much support he still has left in the GOP

before he bolts. Mitch McConnell is going to help him fundraise in Nebraska this month for his Senate seat, and I think that will be a deciding moment for him--if he's not feeling the "love" for being an otherwise extremely loyal Republican (he raised a TON of money for the GOP in Nebraska with his Sandhills PAC), then he will not seek Senate re-election, nor the GOP nom, and run for Prez as an Indie. If he doesn't see a way to succeed in an Indie run, he won't run at all and will leave politics.

[speedoo]

4. Yup. Could not agree more.

The rest of these rethugs are a joke. I don't see any of the "leaders" coming close in 2008.

But in a country that "elected" this bozo shrub twice, literally anything can happen.