"Things are starting to clear out in here. The last two months have seen the bloated, overstuffed race for president start to shrink to a slightly more manageable size.
The three most recent departures are on the Democratic side, where the field was never as large to begin with. On Friday morning, Lincoln Chafee announced that he’s dropping out of the race. That’s no huge surprise. Chafee’s candidacy never made much sense. The Republican senator-turned-independent-governor-turned-Democratic governor had no natural constituency—he left the Rhode Island governorship with ratings in the basement—and no clear rationale for running other than his early opposition to the Iraq war. Chafee never raised any money to speak of, never articulated a clear vision (other than his peculiar advocacy for the metric system), and struggled on stage at the first Democratic debate.
On October 21, Vice President Joe Biden ended months of idle speculation—and a couple weeks of intense, fevered speculation—by announcing that he would not seek the nomination. Biden’s calculus involved a complicated mix of family grief, realism, and ambition, but in large part the decision was made for him: It was probably just too late to make a successful run, as he said.
Biden’s exit came a day after Jim Webb, the former Virginia senator and Navy secretary. Webb had no obvious place in the Democratic Party of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. His roots and political mindset are in white working-class Appalachia, a demographic slipping away from the Democrats, and his weak polling reflected that—he never passed 3 percent or so. Webb also never seemed to enjoy campaigning and barely mounted a run. At the first Democratic debate on October 13, he seemed uncomfortable and didn’t get much speaking time. But this may not be the last we’ve seen of Webb: He’s said to be considering mounting an independent bid.
The more crowded Republican side is a little sparser, too. In early September, Rick Perry—always a long shot—ended his bid. Ten days later, so did Scott Walker, the Wisconsin governor once seen as a top-tier candidate. Ever since, there have been rumors of more departures, but no actual news yet. So who will be next? Will it be a candidate like Rand Paul, whose much-anticipated campaign has failed to take off? A Paul deathwatch has been declared by some pundits, but he insists he’s going nowhere. Or how about some of the dead-enders, like Jim Gilmore or George Pataki? Will they give up the quixotic quest or stick it out until at least Iowa?" (Source-The Atlantic)
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