Election '08 - Senator George Allen standard bearer of the Conservative Right?

Of all the potential candidates for the '08 race George Allen is the only one I've met in person so far - last December when he gave a speech at the John Locke Foundation. He is quite good at delivering stump speeches and has a very solidly conservative, even if not particularly impressive, resume. This former Governor from Virginia is probably the candidate your average GOP primary voter can feel the most comfortable with. He has consistently championed the conservative cause in Virginia and in the Senate and would probably not face any intense opposition from some wings of the party as Giuliani and McCain are likely to encounter. He doesn't poll well yet since his name is not yet widely known, but that will change as we approach the primaries.

I expect Allen to be the front-runner of the conservative right, which is of course the largest segment of GOP primary voters. If Allen can plant doubts into the minds of conservatives about Rudy Giuliani's suitability he could quickly lock up the base behind him. But until then he has quite a lot of leg work ahead of him to raise his public profile, not to mention his war chest.

He will also have to combat the perception of being a Senator in this out-of-touch august body. His candidacy could be doomed by the poor performance of Congress as a whole, and opponents attacking him as a beltway insider. Senator Allen has in part already tried to separate himself from that body by stressing his experience as Governor of Virginia over his role in the Senate.