Frist Protest at Princeton Is Lesson in Art of the Filibuster

Parties Get Head Start on '08 Race

Is it too early to talk about '08?

A new poll of Republican Party insiders gives the early edge in the race for its 2008 presidential nomination to one of its least well-known potential candidates: Sen. George Allen (Va.).

National Journal asked 85 GOP members of Congress, party officials and strategists to predict who would win the party's nod in three years. Allen, a former Virginia governor who is little known outside the mid-Atlantic region, took the top spot, edging Sen. John McCain (Ariz.). Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (Tenn.) came in third, followed by, in descending order, former New York City mayor Rudoph W. Giuliani, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Sen. Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and New York Gov. George E. Pataki.

Allen, at a lunch Friday with reporters and editors of The Washington Post, said that he would leave poll interpretation to the pundits and that he is focused on winning reelection in 2006. "You can never predict the future." But he added this when asked whether he believes he is qualified to be president: "Common-sense Jeffersonian principles that work so well for Virginia, I think, make this country more competitive when applied to the national level as well, whether that's advocated by me or somebody else."

The 90 Democratic insiders surveyed were much more in agreement on who would win their party's nomination, giving the overwhelming edge to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.). Former senator John Edwards (N.C.) came in second, followed by outgoing Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, Sens. Evan Bayh (Ind.) and John F. Kerry (Mass.).

The rest of the top 10? New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark and former vice president Al Gore.

Researcher Brian Faler contributed to this report.