Elinda wrote:
I like Hilary. I think she's as well equipped as any one to run the country. I just don't think the country is yet ready to climb back out on the limb of the white-man tree. Also there's the Bill factor.
I think it's far less some kind of aversion to putting another non-whitemale in the office as the damage that 24 hours a day looping Hillary declaring to congress that it doesn't really matter why we were attacked in Benghazi will cause. Seriously. If she wins the nomination and I were in charge of running opposition media, I'd do nothing but spend money running that clip during every commercial break on every channel for the next 6 months, with the caption "Hillary: Vote for anyone else, or she wont care why you died".
Ok. Maybe different wording, but that bit alone puts her odds at winning somewhere very close to zero and she knows it. Bad outburst at the wrong time on the wrong subject more or less ended her career as an elected official.
Catwho wrote:
Hillary vs Christie would be a close match and a bruiser at that, with Christie likely the winner. The odds of Christie getting past the Republican primary are slim to none, though, even with the adjustments they've made, which might be why Christie is insisting he won't run.
Yeah. Running an obese man from New Jersey, colorful as he is, probably doesn't do much for the GOP in terms of electoral math. Christie probably would still win though, but you're right that his odds of getting through the primary process is very slim (unlike him! Haha. There's just no end to those jokes, or him for that matter... zing!). And honestly? For him, it's less about his waistline as it is that he's viewed as more moderate than most primary voters will want and from a state that doesn't really buy the GOP much.
While folks joke about Cruz, he actually brings a hell of a lot more to the table in terms of electoral math. Rubio even moreso, but he's also young and unpolished (and the Left has already shown a great willingness to make hay out of that). Obviously, we could look at the usual suspect list and toss in Jindal. He's aged a bit more and has more experience this time around, but he actually doesn't seem to want to run (and may have good reasons). Hell, toss Nikki Haley in the mix if you want to really go with the double threat of minority and female, but I don't know if she's really ready for that either.
Dunno. I think there's a pretty decent list of up and coming Republican candidates, but not so much on the Left. I suspect a good portion of that is just perception though. Hillary was such a presumptive frontrunner in 2008, that no one really looked elsewhere. Obama came out of nowhere and took that spot from her, but she remained the "next candidate" in the minds of most liberals since then. This doesn't preclude another "come from nowhere" candidate, but I'm not sure that sort of lightning is likely to strike twice in such a short period of time.
Dems still have some time, but it is growing short.
Edited, Dec 13th 2013 2:37pm by gbaji