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"So what candidate stands head and shoulders above McCain?"

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First, I want to apologize. I forgot to mention McCain's support for the illegal alien amnesty bill. That's another biggie against him.

Who would be better? Well, Thompson, Hunter, and Tancredo without a doubt. That's a gimme.

Now the other three I have serious issues with. Huckabee is the worst. I'd go for McCain above him, no doubt.

Now we're down to Romney and Guiliani. Guiliani's much, much better on taxes, but worse on life. But let's look at the life issue.

The only thing the President can do to influence it is to appoint conservative judges. Guiliani has said he'd appoint conservative judges. You can believe him or not; I couldn't argue whichever way you went. I tend to believe him.

But we KNOW that McCain obstructed an effort to put conservatives on the bench against Democrat obstructionism. He was part of the Gang of 14. One OTHER thing we know about McCain is that he absolutely lives to have the media say nice things about him. Those two facts taken together make me think we're more likely to get a David Souter from McCain than an Antonin Scalia.

Guiliani certainly has administrative experience over McCain, so that would be another point in his favor. I'm not huge on that as a qualification, but does count for something. Bottom line, while it may not be "heads and shoulders," I'd support Guiliani over McCain.

Romney? Hell, who knows what he really believes about ANYTHING? Ideologically, there's just no way to know. He says one thing while running for office in Massachussetts, and the exact opposite while running for President. He subsidized abortions, implemented a government-run health care system, and bragged about what a great advocate he would be for homosexual rights. Basically, he's a snake in the grass.

On the other hand, he appears to be a skilled manager, and has a pretty good record of accomplishments. He's also squeaky-clean, and a very good debater. He exudes competence.

Romney versus McPain? Well, it's a coin toss, but I'd give a SLIGHT edge to Romney with electability being the tie-breaker. Romney looks and sounds like a president; McCain looks and sounds like a cranky septugenarian.

So there it is. My ranking:

Thompson
Tancredo
Hunter
Guiliani
Romney
McPain
Huckabee
I'd vote for every one in the general of course, with the possible exception of Huckabee, who is more and more looking like a complete fraud to me.