Part of me (a rather small part) actually wants the upcoming presidential election to be between a Clinton and a Bush. Holy deja vu Batman!
I have a question for readers. Leave your answers in the comments. Assume for a (brief) moment that the next president had to be picked from one of the Republican candidates — a long list, which now includes Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Scott Walker, along with Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal, George Pataki, Rand Paul, Rick Perry, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Donald Trump. Which one would you pick, and why? Note that I am explicitly not allowing you to pick a GOP candidate because they would be easy to defeat by your favorite candidate from another party — assume for a moment that the GOP will win this election. No fair voting for a box of rocks.
Bonus points: predict who you think will actually win the Republican nomination. I’m willing to go out on a limb with this question and state that I think John Kasich will win the nomination — but for Vice President.
UPDATE: Jim Webb has just announced his candidacy for president. I think Clinton has found her running mate, and he’s somebody who served under Reagan!
16 Comments
Chris Christie was raised a Democrat, his mother (a Democrat) told him to run on the Republican ticket. So I’d say he is a Democrat in Wolves clothing and would pick him.
I’d have to pick Pataki out of the bunch, thinking he’d be the most likely to work with moderates in Congress.
As for who actually wins, I vote for a brokered convention with Paul Ryan being selected, because they don’t know what to do other than fall back on the last loser.
I guess I want Christie, as he seems the most moderate…? Maybe…?
As for who I think will win, I think it will be Bush, with Fiorina as running mate to try to take women votes from Clinton.
Bush has it to lose. He will become GOP candidate. Maybe with a NE or Westcoast Woman as running mate.
Cruz, because after 4 years of Ted Cruz, there would never be another Republican elected to any office. Oh, wait, that’s what I said about W… Ok, Christie because he is the least harmful. Maybe Trump because he would be the easiest to impeach, I’m sure he’d do something stoopid.
Bush is as inevitable as Romney was 4 years ago.
There’s a Bush and Clinton running for President, Jurassic Park is No. 1 at the box office and there’s a Terminator movie coming out soon. Wait, what year is this again?
Still very early and a tough call at this point, but let’s try to work this out. Christie puts the “bully” in “bully pulpit” and only Trump promises to (quote, at 150 decibels) “do various things very quickly”, so those guys will be tough to talk louder than, but may just drown each other out. Bush is on fire and leads the pack right now, and we all know how much Republicans of faith love a burning bush (sorry, couldn’t resist). But he could peak too soon and burn out down the stretch. Perry is still trying to remember the third agency he would shut down, so he’s otherwise occupied. Sanctorum is going straight to hell for dissing the Pope and will probably be smote before long, and Hucksterbee, let’s be honest, is just campaigning for a promotion at Fox. Rubio looks thirsty enough for the job (sorry again), but his crisis with Cuba could nuke his chances. Jindal….hahahahaha! He should gain some weight, doesn’t even look American. Cruz needs to produce a birth certificate, can’t tell for sure if he may be Mexican or Canadian, me thinks he doth protest too much. Kasich could be the coach of this football team, but can’t see him as GM, maybe scores a cabinet position (Secy. of Ohio State). Pataki who? Rand Paul has a skeleton in his closet, his name is Ron (low blow but true, sorry again). Carson needs his head examined…physician, heal thyself!
So by process of elimination, I pick the (still closeted) gay Senator and his eventual running mate, the lady CEO. A double first for the Party and the country, plus she would technically count as his first lady (though he can legally marry now, so stay tuned). Done and done!
I clearly have too much free time at the home office…back to work!
It would be fascinating to see what would happen if Rand Paul was elected. He comes across to many voters here in Kentucky as an independent candidate who is not afraid to speak his mind (filibusters anyone?), and promises to make some major changes in our “broken political system”. He seems more like a 3rd party candidate a la Ross Perot. I think Hillary has the best chance.
I’d have to go with Pataki, even though I despise much of his record (tax cuts tax cuts tax cuts!, cutting health care, cutting education). We even have him to thank for Betsy “Death Panels” McCaughey, who was his first Lt. Governor. So there’s much to despise about him.
But looking through that list, my thought comes back to SCOTUS. He is the only one that I can’t imagine replacing Ginsburg or Breyer with a Scalia or Alito clone.
I always pick lease effective of evil, and calculating that is extremely hard, and easy to get wrong. Obama was lesser of the evils in both 2008 and 2012, but was not least effective of evil (I miscalculated though initially) in 2008.
So from republicans I will pick Rand Paul to be lesser of evil and least effective as well. From Democrats I will pick Bernie Sanders as he is lesser of evil (infact he is more good than evil).
So I will see when primary comes to Texas whether it makes more sense to vote in democrat primary or republican. But my first choice of President will be Bernie Sanders and second Rand Paul, all rest are more or less same (to me) will take time to decide.
I guess Bush or Pataki are the least objectionable of the long list of terribly objectionables.
Part of me thinks that electing one of the truly crazy ones might finally turn some of the less than politically astute voters into Democrats. But then I’ve been hoping that for decades now and it hasn’t happened yet.
As to who will actually win the nomination? I think it’s probably going to be Bush.
I think the real question should be, can Bernie win against any of them?
“Feel the Bern”
It’s way too soon to choose – I’m sure less than half the prospective GOP candidates have announced yet.
I’d have to pick Dr. Carson lead the country. My reasons are all over the place. First, he might be the smartest guy in the room, and secondly he has no political bone in his body. The later might be a reason he doesn’t get in because he hasn’t learned how to lie, pander to the money gods, or evolve his position like most Pols. He’d say what he thinks, regardless of the consequence which is refreshing to me, but not in a how controversial can I be to get the most headlines kind of way.
Who will win the nominations is easy, the candidates who can raise the most money and not be too fringe. So for the Red team it will be Bush and the Blue team will have Clinton. It has already been ordained by those that control elections. So don’t worry silly little voters, they know what’s best for us. Just sit back and enjoy the show, and complain for the next 8 years until Chelsea and George P. are ready for 2024.
Without integrity, expressed political positions don’t matter. Lindsey Graham is the only one with even a single quork of integrity. Yes, he’d take us to war because he believes it’s necessary but the rest, except Raynd Paul, would do it for their own egos. He’s the only one bucking the anti-science agenda of the Republican Party and that while representing arguably the most anti-science state in the nation. I disagree with him on virtually everything and he would be a disaster as president but he would be the best Republican president since Gerald Ford.
I think the actual ticket will be Walker and a woman other than Fiorina.
“There’s a Bush and Clinton running for President, Jurassic Park is No. 1 at the box office and there’s a Terminator movie coming out soon. Wait, what year is this again?”
Ha!
90% chance it will be Bush v. Clinton. I hate it as much as anyone, but I don’t see anything that can stop it.
What a sad question. “None of the above.”
If ANY Republican is elected in 2016, the combination of the presidency and both houses of Congress would make the George W. Bush years seem sane and prosperous and peaceful by comparison.
Are our memories truly so short, that we can’t remember where the country was headed in 2008?
I’m so very glad I’m not the only one who thinks Graham needs to come out of the closet. I also think he’s the only GOP candidate I could stomach voting for, though even H. Clinton for all the problems I have had with her since 1991 looks better than he does.
I predict Bush and Condoleeza Rice.
I want (right now) Webb-Chafee, Sanders-Webb, or Sanders-Chafee…