by Paul Bedard

Has President Obama and his White House P.R. team created a monster in Minority Leader John Boehner?

Just consider this: Boehner is now the fourth most likely GOP presidential candidate behind Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, and Mike Huckabee to win the 2012 Republican nomination, according to Ireland's biggest betting site.

Up until about a month ago, Boehner was not a household political name, but that was before the president started to single the Ohio congressman out as the White House struggled to put a face on the Republicans going into the fall elections. That effort has recently reached its height, with Obama mentioning Boehner in speeches. Over the weekend, Boehner's press office and the White House press secretary issued dueling statements over what the minority leader meant when he said on TV that he would vote for a package that wouldn't extend the Bush-era tax cuts to those making over $250,000, though he called it bad policy.

All of that focus on Boehner seems to have raised his profile so much that he's now being mentioned as a presidential candidate in some polls. For his part, Boehner has not talked about the White House, saying that his life goal has been instead to become speaker of the House.

But according to Paddy Power, the Irish sports betting site, Boehner now is an 8-1 shot for the GOP nomination. He's a 20-1 shot to win the presidency. Of course, he'd have to knock off the front-runner, Mitt Romney, and 4-1 favorite Sarah Palin who herself has surged in the betting odds due to her recent successes with political endorsements and stage-sharing with Fox's Glenn Beck.

Paddy Power said in a statement that "Sarah Palin is obviously playing her cards quite close to her chest but recent betting trends suggest that people believe she may just be the shot in the arm needed by the Republicans."

Still, despite his poor public approval ratings and the focus on Republicans in the midterm elections, Paddy Power still has Obama the odds on favorite to win reelection in 2012.

Paddy Power Betting Odds for the 2012 Republican Primaries

11/4 Mitt Romney

9/2 Sarah Palin

6/1 Mike Huckabee

8/1 John Boehner

8/1 Tim Pawlenty

8/1 John Thune

12/1 Newt Gingrich

12/1 Haley Barbour

12/1 Mitch Daniels

14/1 David Petraeus

16/1 Fred Thompson

16/1 Bill Owens

16/1 Bobby Jindal

16/1 Jon Huntsman

18/1 Chuck Hagel

20/1 Rudolph Giuliani

20/1 Jeb Bush

20/1 Lindsey Graham

20/1 Chuck Baldwin

20/1 Scott Brown

25/1 Tom Ridge

25/1 Ron Paul

33/1 John McCain

33/1 Condoleezza Rice

33/1 George Allen

33/1 John Ensign

33/1 Paul Ryan

33/1 Rand Paul

40/1 George Pataki

40/1 Bill Frist

50/1 Sam Brownback

50/1 Arnold Schwarzenegger

100/1 Dick Cheney

500/1 Laura Bush

 

Odds on the winner of the 2012 presidential election

8/11 Barack Obama

6/1 Mitt Romney

10/1 Sarah Palin

16/1 Hillary Clinton

18/1 Mike Huckabee

18/1 Tim Pawlenty

20/1 John Boehner

25/1 Bobby Jindal

25/1 Newt Gingrich

25/1 Haley Barbour

25/1 Mitch Daniels

28/1 Jon Huntsman

33/1 Joe Biden

33/1 Fred Thompson

33/1 Bill Owens

33/1 David Petraeus

33/1 Chuck Hagel

33/1 Rick Perry

40/1 Evan Bayh

40/1 Rudolph Giuliani

40/1 Jeb Bush

40/1 Lindsey Graham

40/1 Michael Bloomberg

40/1 Chuck Baldwin

50/1 Tom Ridge

50/1 Ron Paul

50/1 Arnold Schwarzenegger

66/1 John McCain

66/1 Al Gore

66/1 Condoleezza Rice

66/1 John Edwards

66/1 George Allen

66/1 Mark Warner

66/1 Caroline Kennedy

66/1 Rand Paul

80/1 Bill Frist

80/1 George Pataki

100/1 John Kerry

100/1 Jim Webb

100/1 Kathleen Sebelius

100/1 Tim Kaine

100/1 Sam Brownback

100/1 Janet Napolitano

100/1 Paul Ryan

 

Available at Amazon.com:

The Backlash: Right-Wing Radicals, High-Def Hucksters, and Paranoid Politics in the Age of Obama

The Feminine Mystique

The Disappearing Center: Engaged Citizens, Polarization, and American Democracy

The Virtues of Mendacity: On Lying in Politics

Bush on the Home Front: Domestic Policy Triumphs and Setbacks

The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House

 

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