I think the comments about Edwards were rather harsh. I also believe that things out there are moving into his strategy; credit markets are getting crushed, foreclosures are rising and no one else is really talking about wanting to bring manufacturing jobs back to America. Is anyone talking about the steel issue? The costs of all these infrastructure pledges could be enormous if undertaken largely due to the fact that we will need to purchase materials from outside the US. If credit crunch gets worse, jobs take a hit and bankruptcies/forceclosures double in the next six months we could be looking at a totally different landscape.
Of course Thompson is over hyped at this point. I give the guy a pass though in all fairness. He cannot enter the race until Fall anyway or everyone he works with loses a paycheck. I give him credit for that. As soon as he enters the race, it is my understanding that all Law&Order shows and reruns with him get pulled from programming thus costing some royalty money to his co-stars. Until he enters he of course is the most overrated.

The fact that Republican insiders consider Thompson seriously overrated is a big danger sign for his campaign. (Disregarding the fact that some of these insiders surely are working for his opponents!) This certainly isn't just a matter of him having not yet officially started the campaign yet -- usually candidates loom larger before they actually step into the ring. 

If what they're saying bears out, it means that Repubs still don't have a serious candidate with a good chance to win both the nomination and the election.  They just have a lot of flawed candidates who will beat the crap out of each other fighting to expand their little 10-20% of the Republican electorate into a working majority.

And the rest of us can sit back and watch -- popcorn, anyone?  ;-)

Who the hell are the insiders?  Clinton Campaign advisors?

the Illuminati.  And they are so over John Edwards.

Methinks it supporters of Hillary answering this poll.  And these are the same insiders who want to move up primaries, before Edwards and Obama can get better known and also get traction. 

Familiarity does not a candidate make.  And that's the main advantage Hillary has.  Her machine is fast at work dissing Edwards and Obama, while she tries to act "positive."  Frankly, the phony MSNBC "Truth Squad" reportange by David Shuster (and documented at www.fair.org and www.huffingtonpost.com) has Hillary written all over it.  It is so FOX-like.  And, as we know Hillary is now supported by Rupert Murdoch.

I am disappointed how little energy has gone into defending Edwards and Obama against this kind of stuff.  And so, over coming weeks I will move to defend both of them, where necessary.

What crap.

They're probably be the strongest general election candidates their respective  parties could nominate.

What are the "insiders" afraid of?

Dems:

Karen Ackerman, Jill Alper, David Axelrod, Brad Bannon, Dave Beattie, Andy Bechhoefer, Cornell Belcher, Mitchell W. Berger, Mike Berman, Donna Brazile, Mark Brewer, Ed Bruley, George Bruno, Deb Callahan, Bonnie Campbell, Bill Carrick, Martin J. Chavez, Tony Coelho, Jim Craig, Jerry Crawford, Jeff Danielson, Jim Demers, Tad Devine, Monica Dixon, Michael Donilon, Tom Donilon, Anita Dunn, Steve Elmendorf, Carter Eskew, Eric Eve, Vic Fazio, Scott Ferson, Tina Flournoy, Don Foley, Don Fowler, Gina Glantz, Joe Grandmaison, Anna Greenberg, Stan Greenberg, Pat Griffin, Michael Gronstal, Marcia Hale, Paul Harstad, Laura Hartigan, Mike Henry, Harold Ickes, Marcus Jadotte, John Jameson, Steve Jarding, Jonathon Jones, Jim Jordan, Gale Kaufman, Shar Knutson, Kam Kuwata, Celinda Lake, David Lang, Sylvia Larsen, Jeff Link, Bill Lynch, Steve Marchand, Jim Margolis, Paul Maslin, Terry McAuliffe, Caroline McCarley, Gerald McEntee, Tom McMahon, David Medina, Mark Mellman, John Merrigan, Steve Murphy, Janet Napolitano, David Nassar, Marcia Nichols, John Norris, Tom Ochs, Tom O'Donnell, Scott Parven, Jeffrey Peck, Debora Pignatelli, John Podesta, Tony Podesta, Bruce Reed, Mame Reiley, Steve Ricchetti, Susan Rice, Will Robinson, Steve Rosenthal, John Ryan, Wendy Sherman, Terry Shumaker, Bob Slagle, Erik Smith, Doug Sosnik, Darry Sragow, Karl Struble, Katrina Swett, Sarah Swisher, Eric Tabor, Jeffrey Trammell, Ed Turlington, Mike Veon, Rick Wiener, Bridgette Williams, and JoDee Winterhof.

Repubs:

Dan Allen, Stan Anderson, Gary Andres, Saulius (Saul) Anuzis, Rich Ashooh, Whit Ayres, Brett Bader, Mitch Bainwol, Gary Bauer, David Beckwith, Wayne Berman, Charlie Black, Kirk Blalock, Carmine Boal, Jeff Boeyink, Jeff Buley, Luke Byars, Nick Calio, Danny Carroll, Ron Christie, Jim Cicconi, Cesar Conda, Jake Corman, Greg Crist, Diane Crookham-Johnson, Rick Davis, Mike Dennehy, Ken Duberstein, Steve Duprey, Debi Durham, Frank Fahrenkopf, John Feehery, Don Fierce, Carl Forti, Alex Gage, Sam Geduldig, David Girard-diCarlo, Bill Greener, Lanny Griffith, Janet Mullins Grissom, Doug Gross, Steve Hart, Ralph Hellmann, Chris Henick, Clark Judge, David Keating, David Kensinger, Bruce Keough, Bob Kjellander, Ed Kutler, Chris Lacivita, Jim Lake, Chuck Larson, Steve Lombardo, Joel Maiola, Gary Maloney, Mary Matalin, Dan Mattoon, Bill McInturff, Mark McKinnon, Kyle McSlarrow, Ken Mehlman, Jim Merrill, Mike Murphy, Phil Musser, Terry Nelson, Neil Newhouse, David Norcross, Ziad Ojakli, Jack Oliver, Van B. Poole, Tom Rath, Scott Reed, David Rehr, Steve Roberts, David Roederer, Ed Rogers, Dan Schnur, Russ Schriefer, Rich Schwarm, Brent Seaborn, Rick Shelby, Andrew Shore, Don Sipple, Javier Soto, Fred Steeper, Bob Stevenson, Eric Tanenblatt, Heath Thompson, Jay Timmons, Warren Tompkins, Ted Van Der Meid, Dirk van Dongen, Jan van Lohuizen, Dick Wadhams, John Weaver, Dave Winston, and Ginny Wolfe.

Some have obvious conflicts of interest (e.g., David Axelrod is working for Obama, and I'm sure that's only one example).  Others are jokes (Dick Wadhams -- Ha!)  I'd take it with a huge grain of salt but not completely discount it.  Washington conventional wisdom is often flat wrong, but it is still of some interest to know what the "insiders" say when they know they won't be quoted for attribution.

Seem to be the wing of the party I dislike the most - at least for quite a few of them.  Go figure.

I was wrong on at least part of my above statement.  kinder has ably shown just who was surveyed.  I don't know all the names.  But it would be interesting to sort all of them out.

Could it be more obvious that the main problem that the insiders have with Edwards is that he is talking about economic fairness? Some of the insiders are people connected with powerful interests groups, and, regardless of what legal definition exists for bribery, in reality there is always the expectation that, if they donate money to a candidate that you are working for, they will get their interests represented.

I don't know why it shocks me how anti-democratic conservative the insiders can be, but it still does.

Populism translates into the people of America are those represented.  I think some Dems are really worried about not having "enough" campaign funds if corporate support dwindles.  But that leads to greater and greater entrenchment of the legal contortion that is the interpretation that corporations deserve rights and legal standing as persons.

Barack Obama has many more years of "elective experience" than either of the other top tier Dem candidates.