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?
You forgot the libs floated Jeb Bush also, pox on all of them, they’re socialist garbage.
Where in the hell does someone come up with bull crap like this in the first place?
Has this author have any idea what is going on in the United States of America all across this Nation? I believe middle America would string up Ryan if given the chance! Sure as hell would not elect him to office again and certainly not the President of the US!
Sheeesh, are these people that stupid?
seems like there is a new favorite RINO by the day
Another fellow traveler as GOP candidate...Why not...
Ryan got rolled by Patty Murray, dumbest ‘Rat in the Senate.
Garfield might have been a very good President had he lived.
Doesn’t take FRs long to turn on folks. I personally don’t know anyone who is perfect in every way so I’ll ask... who is the candidate that fits that calling?
I hated Romney myself but he would have been far better than the azzhole in the WH now.
So wish the communists.
Don’t bother asking. I’ve posted at least three posts in this thread trying to get a decent discussion going on Ryan and all I’ve gotten so far is rebuttals like Mr. Amnesty, screwed the veterans, schooled by Patty Murray, RINO, RINO, RINO.
I even re-read the information on the military pension “cuts” if you could call them that. Following legitimate criticism they decided to not apply those cuts to disabled vets or to the families of those killed in action. The only cut is to the inflation factor from age of retirement to age 65, when most retired military takes a second job, unless disabled. At 65, all of the “cuts” are restored and the pension goes up to what it would have been without the 1% COLA reduction.
Finally, Simpson-Bowles recommended doing away with the entire COLA for retirees altogether, and Ryan was able to secure needed military funding that was being severely impaired by the sequester, which fell most heavily on the military. No one wants to consider any of that though....he’s just a RINO from now on and that’s it.
Anyway, I thought it was an interesting article if for no other reason than that we really don’t have an obvious front-runner yet. No one is even close, especially after Christie’s missteps have disarmed the GOP establishment. He’s toxic now and there’s little he’ll be able to do about it.
Somebody mentioned Dr. Carson, whom I would like to see take a run at it, but supposedly he made an unfortunate comment about semi-autos that I suspect that will disqualify him in certain quarters without further discussion. He’s no doubt just another “gun-grabber.”
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