The Election Is Over. Let the Election Begin.

Gingrich is the biggest wild card in the race -- he is the one person who benefits from the GOP's midterm losses. The Republicans lost the House in part because they strayed too far from the limited government agenda that Gingrich's "Contract With America" envisioned. And it was Gingrich, contract in hand, who helped the Republicans win power in 1994. Who better to get the GOP back on track?

He'll be the most popular candidate on the Lincoln Day speaking circuit, he will shine in a multi-candidate debate, and he remains well liked by conservative activists. But is his ceiling too low? Can he win 50 percent of any audience? One thing is certain: Hillary vs. Newt is the only 2008 combination that could make money on pay-per-view.

Rudolph Giuliani

New York's former mayor continues to enjoy admiration, both within the party and among the broader population, as a hero of 9/11. But Republican primary voters are different from general election voters. Giuliani is destined to be rejected by the GOP base because he's just wrong on too many key issues -- gun control, same-sex marriage and abortion, for starters. Unlike most candidates, he would be diminished by running and losing. He has such a reservoir of goodwill and respect that I think he'll make the calculation not to tarnish himself with a losing campaign.

Bill Frist

Conventional wisdom is now singing in unison that the Senate majority leader from Tennessee has no chance at winning the White House. Frist may take heart from the fact that the conventional wisdom is almost always wrong -- but you know it's a bad year when that's the best thing your candidacy has going for it.

George Allen

He's dead. Watching Allen's campaign this year was like watching a snuff film. Once an emerging contender, the senator from Virginia now has a big "Loser" stamped on his forehead. Apparently, Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are the only ones who can say racist things, receive forgiveness and redemption and have their records expunged. For Republicans, it stays with them forever. Allen is probably now serving a political life sentence with no time off for good behavior.

The Rest: Yawn

Dick Armey, Sam Brownback, Chuck Hagel, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter and George Pataki have all visited Iowa. But their candidacies would need a series of plane crashes and assassinations imaginable only in Hollywood to move to the front of the pack.

There's no right-wing favorite now among the GOP field, and that's unusual. Allen's collapse and Frist's failure leave the party's conservative wing wide open. Can McCain get there? Can Romney outflank him? Can Gingrich fill the vacuum? Personally, I'm still holding out for Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, my friend and former business partner, to enter the race, even though he has told me privately what he also says in public -- he won't run.

And then, of course, there are the Democrats. I take an unavoidably simple-minded look at things: In American politics, what is supposed to happen tends to happen. Only twice since 1850 has a president completed two terms in office and then seen someone else from his party succeed him. So, it should be the Democrats' turn to win.