Breaking news: In a landslide victory, Buddy Roemer will be the 2012 Republican candidate for President of the United States!

Sound strange? Maybe, but if we’re projecting the results of the Republican Primary based solely on the candidates’ visual identities, Roemer would be a shoe-in.

Here’s my take on how each Republican candidate’s branding and messaging factors in to his ability to capture the top spot.

Winner: Buddy Roemer 53%

It's not groundbreaking by any means, but in a sea of Obama mimics, Roemer's look and feel stands out. Sure, his campaign is heavy on Gotham like Obama’s, but the soft textures, muted colors and friendly script typeface work well together. Buddy's brand is refreshing and different, with a tagline—“America Needs Buddy”— that rivals some of the most memorable in history--think Eisenhower's "I Like Ike."

Runner-up: Ron Paul 29%

It's a bit of a boring look that Paul and his team assembled, but the clean and simple aesthetics are good enough to take the runner-up spot. The campaign revolves around a nice, simple logotype set in the friendly-but-still-Republican serif Minon Pro. His site and collateral are consistent with a classy deep blue on stark white with an accent red that hints at orange. This color palette and a stark simplicity feel both presidential and quite different from his competition.

Third: Newt Gingrich 9%

Like Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich also has a no-nonsense approach to his logotype. I'm digging that, and the decision to go with 'NEWT2012', but the execution seems fairly amateur. Paul's design squad gets away with using the clichéd stars and swooshes as subtle accents, but Newt's team? Not so much. Also, any designer worth his salt knows that the star Newt’s using is Illustrator's “default star” (pretty lazy if you ask me). At least switch up the radius for us, Newt! His site, however, is put together pretty well, and hey, if Chuck Norris is on board that's enough for me to bump him up to third place.

Fourth: Mitt Romney %7

Mitt went with an oddly kerned logo featuring The-Official-B-List-Action-Movie-Font, Trajan Pro and a swooshy tri-color R that resembles a toothpaste brand rather than the banner/rally flag I suspect he was trying to recall. Even worse, the rest of the campaign's brand is equally as un-inspiring.

Fifth: Rick Santorum 2%

In addition to having the blandest logo of the main candidates (no small feat), Santorum paid for the most annoying website. Ricksantorum.com is full of jumbled layouts, weird navigation and, lo-and-behold, Trajan Pro. Furthermore, his Search Engine team is terrible (go ahead, Google him).

Buddy shouldn't celebrate too hard quite yet though. He has a lot of catching up to do if he's going to put up a fight against the incumbent. Obama set the benchmark for campaigning with a strong visual identity, as indicated by all of the copycats this election year. While no one may be able to rival the originality and boldness of Obama’s branding, these Republican candidates remind us just how important a strong visual identity is for a successful campaign.