LET THE SWEEPSTAKES BEGIN – AT 8:11 A.M. ET:  Larry Sabato, one of our leading election analysts, has an excellent piece on his website handicapping the GOP's assumed 2012 presidential candidates:

Frankly, it's not an exciting picture.  One is not electrified by the list.  As Sabato says, "Mitt Romney, widely considered to be leading the early pack, starts out as a weak frontrunner."  That pretty much tells the story.  The most interesting name on the list is Marco Rubio, but Sabato notes that Rubio will have had less time in the Senate than Obama did when he ran, and may be too conservative for the general election.  Still, if I had to pick one from the list who had the potential to go all the way, it would be Rubio.  He has about him a sense of inevitability.  The public has shown it is drawn to him.  Remember that Reagan was elected, even though analysts often cautioned that he was too conservative to win.

There are some potentials who aren't on the list.  Paul Ryan is one.  Any chance he has will be determined by what he does in the House to influence his party during the next year.  Of course, no sitting member of the House has ever been elected president. 

This list is fluid, but Sabato's article is the most thorough I've seen about where the GOP race stands right now.

January 21, 2011