Before a few of you jump my case for putting "politics on your precious football blog" (you know who you are), i'm not posting this to try to spark a debate between candidates, or between policies, or between Republicans & Democrats.

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I'm just trying to gauge the pulse of the Cincy Jungle crowd. The primary is kind of like the mock draft of politics!!!

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This post also gave me a chance to compare them to football players - which is something that CNN, HNN, Fox News, MSNBC, BBC, CSPAN, et al probably haven't done yet. So at the very least, my post is newsworthy because i'm taking an angle that hasn't been taken yet.

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Some general stereotypes of them are:

Newt Gingrich - Seen as the smartest/most qualified. Some consider him the best debater of the group. Fairly socially conservative. He's like Bill Bilicheck, he's been around for a long time and has been very successful at what he does - he knows his stuff. But some people just don't like the guy. Others do.

Ron Paul - The all but forgotten candidate. Is definately on a different track than the other 3, being fairly libertarian. He's kind of like the pro-bowl punter of the group - the guy who most people tend to forget about, but is good at what he does. Doesn't get a fair shake, but not because he's worthless.

Mitt Romney - The most moderate/centrist. Seen as the best bet to defeat Obama. The media's favorite to win since day 1. Similar to the Tom Brady of the candidates - east coast guy who the media loves. Romney was the favorite to win since day one, just like how Brady & the Pat's are typically favorites to be in the Super Bowl and in MVP contention from day 1 of the regular season.

Rick Santorum - The social conservative's conservative. The Tim Tebow of the candidates - the one viewed as the most outwardly "Christian", which some love and some detest.