With just one month remaining before the Iowa caucuses, it's time to start trimming the fat off of a bloated field of Presidential candidates. I have eliminated the bottom five from the power rankings. Although I will continue to keep track of their progress in case the ten people ahead of them die they make a comeback, for now it's happy trails for Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich, Duncan Hunter, Chris Dodd, and Joe Biden.

Here are this week's Presidential Power Rankings:

(1) Barack Obama, 85.6 Points, 2 First Place Rankings
(2) Mitt Romney, 81.8, 2 First Place Rankings
(2) Hillary Clinton, 81.8 Points, 3 First Place Rankings
(4) John Edwards, 73.1 Points
(5) Rudy Giuliani, 72 Points, 1 First Place Ranking
(6) Fred Thompson, 64.6 Points
(7) Mike Huckabee, 63.8 Points, 2 First Place Rankings
(8) John McCain, 62 Points
(9) Ron Paul, 57.3 Points
(10) Bill Richardson, 54 Points

Barack Obama continues his upward trend, further distancing himself from money leader Hillary Clinton. This continued upward mobility is due to another week of almost exclusively positive media coverage and news that he is now in a statistical tie with Clinton in New Hampshire. The Clinton campaign continues its downward spiral, losing a double-digit lead in New Hampshire and practically planning for defeat in Iowa. Although she has stepped up the attacks against the current front runner, it is clear that her campaign is faltering a month shy of the first caucuses. I would like to talk about John Edwards, but on the Democratic side its a defacto two-person race.

On the Republican side, the big mover is Mitt Romney. After gaining a key endorsement from the nation's leading Republican publication, Romney followed it up with an impressive debate performance. He also went on the offensive against Mike Huckabee's attacks on Mormonism, and his "Kennedy Speech" has generally been received well. He now shares the outside poll position with Hillary Clinton. After a week of almost exclusively negative media coverage, coupled with a mediocre debate performance, Mike Huckabee still managed to hold his overall position. He is now the front-runner in two former Fred Thompson strongholds. And now he has more help. With the bad press he received becoming less and less relevant as the week went on, expect him to make significant gains this week. Rudy Giuliani, the Republican national poll leader, continues his decent after a week of little press coverage, a mediocre debate performance, and slipping to fourth in Iowa. Rudy has also lost the lead in Florida to, you guessed it, Mike Huckabee.

It is important to remember that these power rankings are based heavily on polling and money, with positive/negative press coverage being less significant. The polling results change on a weekly basis, but financial disclosures are only turned in quarterly. The movement you are seeing is due solely to polling and positive/negative press coverage, hence Mike Huckabee remaining out of the top 5. While Huckabee is polling great, his most recent financial disclosure puts him near the back of the pack in overall cash. His apparent stagnancy is based on his financial situation, not on the fact that I personally don't support him.