Posted on 02/06/2014 6:42:40 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
There's been a lot of blathering about who the front-runner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination is, and so far I've resisted taking part. But I guess I'm kind of curious: Is there much of a case to be made for anyone other than Paul Ryan?
On the substantive side, Ryan sure seems like he's setting himself up for a run. There's his steady series of "unheralded" anti-poverty outreach trips that always manage to be just heralded enough to get sympathetic press coverage. He brokered a budget deal with Patty Murray that was businesslike and low-drama but didn't alienate the tea party crowd too badly. Today, in a hearing about the CBO's report on Obamacare, he acknowledged that the report didn't say that employers would be cutting jobs—points for intellectual honesty!—while also calling Obamacare a "poverty trap"—points for demagoguery! This is all stuff that seems very delicately calculated to stay in the good graces of the tea party base while building up plenty of policy substance cred that will keep him attractive to moderate voters.
On the flip side, who are his big competitors? Chris Christie is toast. Marco Rubio is inexperienced to begin with, and then muffed his chance for statesmanlike glory when he staked his reputation on immigration reform and came up empty. Jeb Bush can't even get his mother's endorsement. Scott Walker is getting buzz, but he strikes me as having too much baggage. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are novelty candidates, not to be taken seriously. And although I used to think Bobby Jindal might have a chance, he's had a rough past couple of years.
Maybe I'm dismissing all these guys a little too glibly. Walker and Bush are certainly serious possibilities. And I admit that Ryan doesn't always give off a vibe that says he's running for president. And of course, we're still a couple of years away from 2016, anything can happen, blah blah blah.
Still, ol' blue eyes sure looks like the favorite to me right now. Anyone want to make a case for one of the others?
Yep. You are not a true democrat if you don’t vote at least 5 times in the same election.
A young female with name recognition? Is 49 young where you live?
2008 & 2012.
Dang just this morning it was Jeb Bush! Please gawd give us more bush!!!
Put down the crack pipe.
Or Dan Quayle?
Says who?
Mother Jones?!?
Quit letting the commies pick our picks.
He'll only be 91 in July. He would be the first president to turn 100 while in office. We all need to get behind him and make it happen! Let's not let the dems get all the "firsts." And Dan Quayle would be the VP.
No, make Sarah Palin his running mate and I’m for it.
Yeah, the TP was really thrilled about that. He already alienated them so how can he alienate them again?
Well, I consider myself as having Tea Party principles and he hasn’t alienated me yet.
Says Mother Jones. Bwhahahaha!!!
Draft Dr. Benjamin Carson...only guy who can annihilate the opposition....
Mrs. Bill Clinton lost out to a Black when she ran for POTUS.
Hence, we should run Dr. Ben Carson, Dr. Thomas Sowell, or Col. Allen West.
It would drive the Leftstream Media nuts!
a Left-Liberal rag thinks it knows what it in fact does not know
Polk?
Let's see what the Republican voters have to say.
Let’s have multiple RINOs: Fatso, Little Brotehr Jebbie, Rep. Rino, Huckster, even Huntsperson. That way, none of them can use the Romney Plan, whereby the conservatives (Gingrich and Santorum) get almost 2/3 of the vote and the “moderate” (so-called) wins the primaries.
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