Posted By: Janine Delacroix

by Carlos HamannWed Nov 8, 4:54 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The end of the 2006 congressional elections marked the start of the 2008 race for the White House, with Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republicans John McCain and Rudolph Giuliani as the front-runners.
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No major candidates have officially announced plans to run for their party's nomination, but with the opposition Democrats now in control of the US House of Representatives and the balance in the Senate still undetermined, putative hopefuls are positioning themselves for a 2008 White House bid to succeed President George W. Bush, who is limited to two, consecutive four-year terms.

"We believe in our country, and we're going to take it back, starting tonight!" Clinton told supporters in New York late Tuesday, following her re-election as senator for New York.

Asked repeatedly whether she will make a bid for the White House, the former US first lady, 59, has been non-committal.

"Obviously people are talking about whether or not I will or should run for president, and I'm flattered by that, but I have made no decisions," she said recently.

Clinton is married to the party's most popular figure, former president Bill Clinton, who is widely seen as a master political strategist. But her candidacy would also raise memories of the less-savory aspects of her husband's 1993-2001 presidency, including the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.

Hillary Clinton has a substantial lead in early polls for her party's nomination: An October 27 CNN poll showed she has 38 percent support among Democrats, 11 points ahead of her nearest rival, Illinois Senator Barack Obama.

Clinton had enjoyed a 28 percent lead among Democrats before Obama, born to a Kenyan father and a white mother from Kansas, announced in late October that he was considering a White House run.

In recent weeks, the charismatic Obama, 45, has been traveling the country supporting Democratic candidates for Congress and hawking his second book, "The Audacity of Hope."

However, the two leading Democrats are running against history: No US senator has been elected president since John F. Kennedy in 1960.

On the Republican side, the same CNN poll showed Giuliani, 62, who served as mayor of New York during the September 11, 2001 attacks, leading his party's nomination with 29 percent, followed closely by McCain, a senator from Arizona, with 27 percent.

Giuliani's hopes were buoyed by a WNBC/Marist poll released October 4 that showed he would beat Clinton in a head-to-head race for the US presidency.

The poll found that 49 percent of voters would back the man dubbed 'America's Mayor' against 42 percent for Clinton. Nine percent were undecided.

"Democrats seem to support (Clinton) as their main candidate for president -- she's way ahead of anybody else -- and it seems like Republicans are just waiting for her to be the candidate so they can vote against her," Giuliani told the New York Daily News in August.

But to be nominated Giuliani would first have to defeat McCain, a straight-talking politician whose name is often linked to the noun "maverick."

"This is a wake-up call for the Republican Party," said McCain, commenting on Tuesday's results.

McCain has been in the national spotlight since 1973, when he was released after more than five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He failed in his 2000 bid for the Republican Party's presidential nomination against Bush.

If elected, McCain, now 70, would become the oldest US president to take office, beating Ronald Reagan, who was 69 when he took the job in 1981.

Democratic dark horse candidates include:

- Senator John Kerry, the 2004 candidate, who may have seen his hopes dashed after seen as a slight against US troops in Iraq. Kerry, 62, apologized for his "botched joke," but the remarks were aired for days on television.

- Former vice president and 2000 Democratic presidential hopeful Al Gore, 58, who has made warning about the effects of global warming his main cause. Gore says he is not interested in the job.

- Kerry's 2004 running mate, former senator John Edwards, 53. The ex-senator has been heading a research center studying poverty at the University of North Carolina and has delivered speeches in states important for the nomination, such as New Hampshire and Iowa.

- New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, 59, former US ambassador to the United Nations and former energy secretary under president Clinton. Richardson, who is Hispanic, could tap into one of the country's fastest-growing segment of new voters.

"Historically governors have done well in seeking the White House," Richardson said Wednesday on television network MSNBC, adding that he would take a decision on running in January.

Other possible Republican candidates include:

- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, 51, who polled second (behind Giuliani and ahead of McCain) in a September 20 WNBC/Marist poll among Republicans. Rice seems to enjoy the speculation in interviews but has made no indication that she wants the job.

- Newt Gingrich, 63, who led the 1994 Republican Party takeover of the House of Representatives and served as speaker. Gingrich, however, remains a divisive figure who may have little national support.

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