I continue to be surprised at the volatility of the Phony Campaign. I'm also surprised that candidates' phoniness numbers ever go down. Especially John Edwards'. Anyway:
| Query String | Hit Count | Change Since 2007-09-20 |
|---|---|---|
| "Hillary Clinton" phony | 397,000 | -19,000 |
| "John McCain" phony | 301,000 | -24,000 |
| "John Edwards" phony | 300,000 | -47,000 |
| "Barack Obama" phony | 249,000 | -32,000 |
| "Ron Paul" phony | 236,000 | -95,000 |
| "Mitt Romney" phony | 215,000 | -18,000 |
| "Fred Thompson" phony | 207,000 | -25,000 |
| "Rudy Giuliani" phony | 184,000 | -14,000 |
| "Dennis Kucinich" phony | 113,000 | -8,000 |
| "Dave Burge" phony | 61 | +2 |
The big news is that Ron Paul has stumbled badly; even in this week of generally declining phoniness, he plummeted from second place all the way down to fifth. And John Edwards edged under John McCain to eke a third place showing.
I'm in agreement with this part of Paul Mirengoff's analysis of last night's Democratic debate:
… [P]art of me hopes that Edwards did make headway because he's too phony for anyone but a committed Democrat not to see through.Indeed. How can this man not be the clear leader in this analysis?
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