Pun Salad

The race has tightened at the top. Just when I thought Hillary was a complete runaway, her phoniness has collapsed to the point where the other huge phonies, Ron Paul and John Edwards, have a shot at taking the lead.

• Close followers of the phony campaign will note that we've dropped Dave Burge from the standings, as this was technically a "joke", and we've started to take this whole thing way too seriously. (Dave has since decamped for Mexico, where I'm pretty sure they don't even have a primary, so his dedication to his campaign is in question.)

  We're leaving Kucinich in, though. Probably more than enough laughs there.

• And we've added Mike Huckabee to the mix, since (as Dean Barnett points out) he actually outpolled Mitt Romney recently. According to this John Fund article, Mike may have a lot of upside potential, phoniness-wise.

  Betsy Hagan, Arkansas director of the conservative Eagle Forum and a key backer of [Huckabee's] early runs for office, was once "his No. 1 fan." She was bitterly disappointed with his record. "He was pro-life and pro-gun, but otherwise a liberal," she says. "Just like Bill Clinton he will charm you, but don't be surprised if he takes a completely different turn in office."

• I looked at Intrade's prediction markets for the nominations to see if there was anyone else I should include in the standings. Surprisingly, Al Gore ranks higher over there (among Dems) than anyone except Clinton and Obama; he even leads Edwards. What would happen if we put him in?

  Query String	Hit Count
  "Al Gore" phony	827,000

  That's right: he'd be by far the front runner. I'm not surprised, are you?