Republican Presidential Candidates, 2016

Beware.

And be afraid. Be very afraid.

People Who Should Just Go Away

I don't mean anything bad or awful should happen to them but honestly, they should just go away.

Mitt Romney

George W. Bush

Dick Cheney (should have happened years ago)

Both Koch brothers

Donald Trump

All the Walton siblings

Chris Christie

Carly Fiorina

Rand Paul.

Rick Perry

Ted Cruz (see a trend here?)

Mike Huckabee (from Arkansas)

Senator Tom Cotton (also from Arkansas)

Bill O'Reilly.

Rush Limbaugh.

Sean Hannity.

Steve Doofus. Doocy. Whatever.

Ray Romano (just because he's so incredibly dull)

I'd say Jay Leno but thankfully, he did go away

Climate change deniers

Obama haters

Haters, period

NRA President Wayne LaPierre

Racists (but that's an easy one)

People who scream, fixatedly, about the nation's deficit

Single-issue people (again, this could be people fixated on the national deficit or abortion or whatever)

The overly emotional

The icy cold, eartless bastards of the world

All the Kardashians (there's more than one, right?)

Kanye West

Anne Coulter (absolutlely)

Rudy Giuliani

Sheriff Joe Arapaio

Megyn Kelly

Rupert Murdoch

Pat Robertson (the crazy, greedy, rich old bastard)

Anyone who doesn't bring intelligence or laughter or kindness--at least one--to the world

Hope--and a smile--for 2016

Washington Post columnist and political reporter Chris Cillizza  wrote a terrific summary of the current possible Republican candidates for president in 2016 this week:

No, Mitt Romney isn't running for president

If this list doesn't give one hope for 2016, for that election and even for America, nothing can.

10. Paul Ryan:  The Wisconsin Republican's total lack of interest in making a play for a House leadership post following Eric Cantor's stunning loss earlier this month left me, again, wondering just what the heck he wants out of his political career. The answer is elusive but now seems to be that he wants to bide his time and see where the party -- in Congress and nationally -- goes over the next few cycles. At 44 years old, he can afford to wait. (Previous ranking: 9)

9. Bobby Jindal: The Louisiana governor is running for president. The latest piece of evidence was a two-day swing through Iowa, stopping by the state Republican convention and raising money for the state party. Jindal, in his day job, is building a record that hard-core conservatives will love. He rejected the Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act and, more recently, issued an executive order to withdraw the state from the Common Core education standards program. (Previous ranking: 7)

8. Ted Cruz: The last week in politics has to give the Texas Republican Senator some pause. His preferred candidate in Oklahoma's Republican Senate primary got walloped on Tuesday, the same night tea party insurgent Chris McDaniel inexplicably lost to establishment pick Thad Cochran in the Mississippi Senate runoff. Cruz has a loyal base of support. But, it's not big enough to be the nominee. (Previous ranking: 6)

7. Mike Huckabee: The former Arkansas governor is doing the sorts of things one does when he wants to run for president.   He stumped for Mike Campbell, a candidate for North Carolina South Carolina lieutenant governor earlier this month. He's giving the wink and nod statements of interest that are part of the game. And, polling in Iowa at least shows he remains popular; a recent Des Moines Register poll showed Huckabee had the second highest favorable ratings of any potential 2016 GOPer. (Paul Ryan was at the top.) (Previous ranking: 8)

6. John Kasich: The Ohio governor is the "it boy" of the smart-set in DC at the moment. He looks to be on his way to a comfortable re-election victory in the swingiest state in the country at the presidential level. He's run for president before and no one we talk to says he doesn't want to again.  If Kasich wins this fall and shows some interest in the race, he could move up these rankings. (Previous ranking: N/A)

5. Chris Christie: Just when he thought he was out, they pulled him back in. The news, which broke this week, that the feds are investigating the New Jersey governor's use of Port Authority funds to repair the Pulaski Skyway, further complicates Christie's political rehabilitation efforts. Whether or not anything in this latest investigation gets to Christie remains very unclear but it's just another bad storyline that he has to deal with at a time when he wants to pivot to the process of running for president. (Previous ranking: 4)

4. Scott Walker:  Speaking of bad headlines, the Wisconsin governor has had to weather some of his own lately over allegations of illegal coordination between his 2012 recall campaign and outside groups aiding that effort. But, earlier this week, an attorney for the special prosecutor tasked with looking into the allegations made clear that Walker was not a target of the probe. That was a nice piece of news for Walker -- and should help him quiet the storm of coverage that had popped up over the past 10 days or so. (Previous ranking: 5)

3.  Rand Paul: Paul is the most interesting candidate running for the Republican presidential nomination. He's also the one -- with the possible exceptions of Rubio and Jeb Bush -- who can make a credible case that nominating him would expand the GOP into parts of the electorate it hasn't been able to reach in recent years. Paul remains somewhat unpredictable -- that's also part of his appeal -- and it remains to be seen whether he could win a one-on-one fight with a more establishment candidate. (Previous ranking: 2)

2. Marco Rubio: The last time we wrote about the 2016 presidential field in this space, we recommended buying stock in the Florida Senator. That's still our recommendation -- particularly as Walker and Christie have stumbled a bit as of late.  Rubio's record in the Senate -- with the exception of immigration reform -- is solidly conservative and he is probably the most naturally gifted candidate in the field.  We keep hearing whispers that Rubio's record during his time as Speaker of the Florida house is ripe for an opposition researcher but we're not there yet. (Previous ranking: 3)

1. Jeb Bush: Until he says "no" -- and we still think that's more likely than him saying "yes"  -- we are going to keep the former Florida governor at the top of these rankings. That ranking is largely built on his last name and the political and fundraising muscle it represents. As Philip Bump noted in a recent Fix post, however, Jeb's record on core conservative policies is not so good. (Previous ranking: 1)

When you add  in the facts that, first, the Republican Party needs the Hispanic vote in 2016 and beyond, in order to win--or start winning--in elections and that, second, most of the Right Wing but especially the extremists in that wing, like the Tea Party, etc., want nothing whatever to do with that namby-pamby "immigration reform", it seems a sure bet the Republicans are doomed come the big election year.

Leastways, it's what we're hoping, that's for sure.

At this point, however, this is all just enough to brighten a Summer weekend. 

Have a terrific one, y'all.

On 2016 and President Hillary Rodham Clinton

Much as I would love, love, love to have a woman, specifically Hillary Clinton, as next president of these United States and as good as that would be, in at least some, if not a lot of ways, I've come to the conclusion that, even though it should be inconsequential--a woman as president--it will, quite likely, tear the nation apart.

I was speaking with an older, white friend last evening--and I mention his color because it does, in fact, matter--and mind you, he's beyond Right Wing, he's that far out there, and the anger and invective that came from his mouth at the mention of Hillary Clinton as next president of the nation was extremely strong and swift.

I think, for these people, quite likely a great deal of them, they feel or have felt that the election of the first black as president, Barack Obama, of course, was an aberration, whether they think the election was stolen or that he was put in there by some Left Wing cabal or the "Illuminati" or whatever. They'd like to get away from that aberration, naturally, in this line of thought, and getting back to some man--nearly any man but preferably, again, of course, a Republican, first but just ANY man would be accepted and an improvement, even if he's a Librul, God forbid.

Going from, first, a black man--a Kenyan, at that, they think--to a woman, THAT woman, Hillary Rodham Clinton--will just be continuing the nightmare for these people. Sure, it would do wonders for Fox "News" and Rush "Porkulus" Limbaugh and Bill O'Really and Glen Beck and Mike "Huckster" Huckabee and all the haters but with both their hate and anger, I believe they may well come to the conclusion, for all their hysterical but deeply held beliefs and "reasons", that we, America and Americans, really are "going to hell" and Hillary Clinton as president, if even for only 4 years would be beyond the pale.  It would be too far. It would be too much. For them, anyway.

Forget that, as I said above, you'd think and hope that it's inconsequential that she happens to be female. Forget the historic factor of, not just finally, finally, as a nation, having our first female elected president or that she would be, in fact, also following the first elected black president and forget that there would also, at the same time, be a former president as sitting "First Man" in the White House. Forget all that, sweep that aside, monumental as it would all be.

The fact is, Ms. Clinton has a good to great shot at being the next president of this country.  Naturally, it's a long, long way from November, 2016 politically but it is coming up on the time horizon very quickly, nonetheless. The race has clearly already begun, for that matter. The positioning for the job began at least months ago.

The possibilities and likelihoods of all this for the nation is both exciting and scary, all at once.

These are fascinating times in which we live.

I could go for a bit less "fascinating", however.

Other nations can have a female leader for their countries.

We Americans just don't seem to be that intelligent, mature or open-minded to it yet.  We aren't ready.

I'd love to be wrong about that.

Great 2012 Presidential information out today

Headline 1:

George Will: Newt Gingrich 'not a serious candidate'

Headline 2:

Mike Huckabee Out; Sarah Palin In?

 

Man, I love this race right now. 

 

Enjoy your relaxing Sunday evening out there, folks.

Further Obama-bashing has already begun and it needs to stop

The election is 3 days over and already the "Obama-bashing", in order to position for the 2012 election has begun.

From the news today, Mike Huckabee started saying on Fox "News" that the President's trip to India this week was going to cost $200 million per day.  Naturally, Michelle Bachmann repeated it, without either of them doing any research first, so the Drudge report and Glenn Beck spouted it, too.  (Not that Glenn Beck ever did any pesky "research", right?)

Truth be told, the claim came, from all places, from "an anonymous Indian government official."  


As it turns out, the story is absolutely false, no surprise.  At one point in the rumor, it was said that "the U.S. was stationing 34 warships—roughly 10 percent of the naval fleet--off the coast of Mumbai for security reasons."


Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell called the warship claim "absolutely absurd." "That's just comical," he said at Thursday's Pentagon news briefing.  "Nothing close to that is being done."


Additional verification of its silliness:  The nonpartisan FactCheck.org took up the issue, too, saying that even though the administration won't release a price tag, there is "simply no evidence to support" a claim of $200 million a day. One reason to doubt the report, according to the group:  The entire war in Afghanistan costs $190 million a day.


This brings up two points for me.  


The first is that the lies against this President should stop, along with the absurdity, ridiculousness and outlandishness of them.


But they won't stop.  Far from it.  If anything, because of the now-current 2012 election campaign that we'll all be exposed to ad nauseam/ad infinitum from here until that fateful November day, these kinds of things will only flourish.   Instead of all these people working for the betterment and improvement of the country, they will only continue to come up with this kind of nonsense--accusations, lies, attributions, etc.


Employment numbers came out today and they were positive.  Do you think the Republicans are going to celebrate that?  Heck no.  They're not going to be happy, clearly, if the country does well---and this President is re-elected.  Mitch McConnell made it clear when he said "The single-most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president."


The second thing this all brings up for me now, today, and for the next 2 years ties in with this and that is that everyone--everyone--in this country--Republicans, Tea Party members, Libertarians, Democrats, Independents, all--should be working together as Americans, first, last and always, to make this country and all our conditions better.


Sadly, nearly unbelievably, this isn't going to happen. 


Between now and November 2012, Republicans are going to do everything they can--and it better not include impeachment proceedings but they may try that again--to see to it that our economy and our legislative process, both, go against the President so they'll "win" and he'll fail.


And to do that goes against this country in a lot of ways.


It seems very nearly treasonous.


Link to original post:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20101105/el_yblog_upshot/citing-shady-numbers-republicans-take-aim-at-the-cost-of-obamas-trip-to-india/print
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/10/25/mcconnell-obama-one-term/

A week old but still good and certainly appropos

Have a great weekend, y'all.