Who Would Make the Best President?

Oct. 19, 2007 — -- When it comes to the 2008 presidential race, it is no longer early – in fact, it is getting late. So it is time to stop quibbling about which candidate has the best campaign moves, and get down to the serious business of determining who would make the best president.

Subtract Halloween, the World Series, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and you will find there are not many shopping days left to pick the nation's forty-forth president.

Voting in this election will begin in the first days of 2008.

Keeping with tradition, Iowa and New Hampshire will dominate the early stages of the nominating process, but many Americans will begin casting ballots by mail in January, and more than half the country will vote in a rapid succession of caucuses and primaries in the first five weeks of the new year.

The candidates will not have enough time or money to reach every voter in all of these states. So citizens across the country should start paying close attention now, not just by monitoring the passing parade of media coverage, which tends to focus on the tactics and strategies of politics, but by trying to assess which person could best govern the nation. It is time to choose, before the choice is made for you.

Even though the stakes are high, with the burden of the Iraq War and pressing domestic issues awaiting the next administration, many Americans are just now starting to pay attention to this race.

For those just joining us: some candidates have already dropped out of the race (Tommy Thompson, Jim Gilmore, and Tom Vilsack, we hardly knew you), and some big names have taken a pass (give up those dreams for a Gore-Gingrich match up). But there are still more than a dozen active contestants in the two major parties, and New York City's savvy, billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg stalks the sidelines, pondering a potential independent bid.

The Democrats have a clear frontrunner in Hillary Clinton, while the Republican race remains a jumble. But if history is any guide, as fall turns to winter, some candidates from both parties will kick things up a notch, elevating their stump speeches, their campaign skills, their feel for what the country is looking for in a new a leader to replace George W. Bush, and perhaps surge to the front of the pack, or at least make some news and scare the frontrunner.

Mark Halperin is editor-at-large and senior political analyst at Time magazine, a political analyst for ABC News, and author of "The Undecided Voter's Guide to the Next President."