Foolocracy is asking our readers to select the “Fool of the Year.” Realistically, there are more candidates than we can list for a poll. Undoubtedly, there are some very good choices that have been missed, but these are the top candidates we selected.

The criteria is straightforward. Pick the politician who you think has acted the most foolish over the last year.

The rules for this selection are very simple: vote early, vote often and vote later. In sum, you can vote as much as you want and for as many candidates as you want. This is a poll about fools, after all. A little whimsy in the serious business of politics is in place here. Then again, with some of the stunts these politicians have pulled, they deserve all the ridicule they can get. On New Year’s Eve, Foolocracy will select your winner with some fanfare of sorts.

Here are the candidates with a brief quip and link about one or several of their foolish feats or words of the past year. Your consideration is not limited to the article these candidates are linked to. The articles are only included as a simple reminder that eventually all politicians play the fool.

Oh, there is one more point. Because you can vote as often as you want and for as many politicians as you want, Foolocracy is keeping the results secret until the end. We might give a hint now and then how the voting is going, but not enough to influence it…as if it really matters.

Barack Obama – 57 states and counting?

John McCain – Uh, how many houses did he own before he suspended his campaign?

Sarah Palin – Too many qualifications as a fool to mention

John Edwards – When the National Enquirer makes a fool out of you, that’s enough to be nominated as a fool

George Bush – Seriously, is there a reason not to include him?

Silvio Berlusconi – This Italian Prime Minister selected cabinet members by their good looks and, allegedly, had oral sex with one of them…and, no, he is the Italian Prime Minister, not a former American President

Rod Blagojevich – Mr. Corruption 2008

Eliot Spitzer – At least he pays good

Robert Mugabe – The President of Zimbabwe rigged his re-election and ruined the economy with inflation running at a few hundred million percent

Hillary Clinton - How do you blow a huge lead for the Democratic nomination? Ducking fire from make-believe snipers in Bosnia

Hugo Chavez – Venezuela’s tin pot dictator only pretends to believe in democracy

Jesse Jackson – He wanted to do what to Barack Obama?

Jim Gibbons – When the state has legalized prostitution and gambling, what do you expect from the governor?

Kwame Kilpatrick – Detroit’s mayor mixed sex, arrogance and perjury. Now he is set to be the mayor of his cellblock

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – Why nuclear technology and idiocy is never a good mix

Ralph Nader – Preparing to debate a dummy is…dumb

Vito Fossella – Next time you’re arrested don’t call the mistress to pick you up

Troy Buswell – The ladies need to worry where they sit with this Australian chair-sniffing politician

Alan Keyes – How may times can one person run for President in a single year?

Bill Clinton – He really, really wanted to be the first First Husband