America 2016

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Anti-NSA is going to become the new anti-war. Rand Paul will win by saying he will stop the NSA. It's that simple.

She'll be in her late 60s. She's 65 today. Reagan was days away from turning 70. McCain was in his early 70s when he ran.

When Reagan was re-elected he was days away from being 74 when he took office and obviously suffered from some memory issues.

It's too early to really predict the 2016 election, I think the only safe bet right now is that Hilary, if she wants it, will be the Democratic nomination. If the Democrats don't run Hilary then they are in trouble since their bench is terrible. After Hilary, the next most popular Democrat as of now is Joe Biden who I, and I think most people, consider unelectable. After that you hear Andrew Cuomo, Corey Booker, Elizabeth Warren, Martin O'Malley, John Hickenlooper, and Brian Schweitzer.

Grassroots likes Warren but she's a dullard if you actually hear he talk about almost anything, if she was running anywhere but Massachusetts in a presidential year she would of lost. The whole lying about being Native American isn't going to go away either. The base likes her but I think when push comes to shove and she actually has to defend herself she'll be exposed for what she is.

Cory Booker is a well spoken and likable guy, he could have crossover appeal but he isn't even elected to the Senate yet so I think it is way to early to talk about him turning around an running for president 2 years later. He is only the mayor of Newark right now, lets see how the senate treats him if and when he gets there.

Schweitzer could be a strong candidate being the former Democratic governor of a red state like Montana but I don't think the base would be a fan of his position on gun control altho I believe he's big on universal healthcare so maybe they can forgive him or force him to flip flop. I think he'd be a strong general election candidate since he'll be able to distance himself from being an Obama clone, he'd be a lot more palatable to moderate and independent voters.

Hickenlooper is another governor of a formerly red western state but doesn't seem like he's too popular in Colorado anymore and has a tough reelection campaign coming up. If he were to lose reelection to Tom Tancredo that would be the end of his political career.

I know next to nothing about O'Malley other than he's the governor of Maryland and pretty progressive. Maybe he'll do something else to make himself known to American public between now and then.

Andrew Cuomo has a famous name(and dad), Governor of New York, former Attorney General of New York, a Clinton cabinet member, was even married to a Kennedy. He has all the credentials that most democrats would want as a nominee. He's very much a big city liberal and I'm not sure that is going to be the best way to go in 2016 general election but I do think after Hilary and Biden, he is the best poised to win the Democratic nomination as of now.

As for Biden, I think he'd have a decent chance at the nomination if the Obama machine gets behind him but I'm not 100% sure they would. There are a lot of Obama loyalists and Obama has spent a lot of time and effort building his own political organization as opposed to strengthening the DNC. I think Biden would receive a strong primary challenge and whether or not he receives Obama's full backing depends on who that person is and how viable of a candidate he/she is. That is to say, if even being associated with Obama is considered a good thing in 2016...

The GOP is a little trickier, the field is pretty wide open. It's hard to pick out who is a serious candidate and who isn't at this point. It's hard not to be bias here but I'll try...

Right away, I think Marco Rubio and Chris Christie have pretty much 0 chance at the GOP nomination. Both have pissed the base off and Rubio has been exposed for not being very articulate either. The only reason Rubio gets brought up is because he's Hispanic, I do not believe he'd survive the debates. Christie is articulate but his liberal positions along with his cozying up to Obama pretty much kill any chance of him being nominated. Rudy Giuliani was a lot more popular with middle America than Christie is and his candidacy was on dead on arrival to the actual voting.

Jeb Bush gets brought up a lot, not sure the GOP is dumb enough to run another Bush so soon but I think he could potentially win the support of the establishment forces like Romney did. He's well spoken compared to his brother, his wife is Hispanic, we all know his background. Not sure he'll run, he's not polling great either.

I doubt Rick Santorum runs again but he won't win even if he did, relax. I've heard some rumblings about Rick Perry but he has little chance considering the issues his 2012 run gave him. Not only was he terrible in debates, he got torn apart by his rivals too.

Paul Ryan might run again and he'd be in pretty good position. He's a young good looking guy, the establishment likes him, he's popular with the base(altho I'd be interested to see how he'd hold up to scrutiny) and he's 'next in line'. It's pretty rare for a congressman to be the presidential nominee and its tough for a failed VP candidate to be elected later. I'd take him very seriously in 2016.

I think Rand Paul will be a very strong candidate in 2016, he has inherited the grassroots support from his dad but has a more broader appeal to Republican base voters. He's raised his profile a lot in the Senate since 2012 on various issues so most people know who he is. He's very popular with independents and could contest some non-traditional GOP voters with his civil libertarianism and opposition against these wars. He's 1st or close to it in most 2016 polling, he'll be even stronger in the early states of Iowa and New Hampshire thanks to the organization left by his dad. He's made friends and stuck his neck out on endorsements so you'd think he'd receive some support from his allies.

If Rand were to ever when the nomination, there would be a lot of ugly things said about him from the neocons and partisan democrats. I wouldn't be surprised to see some neocon crossing over to endorse Hilary, John McCain in particular. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if whoever the democratic nominee is picks a republican as VP. We all remember that McCain wanted Joe Lieberman as his running mate but not as many people remember that John Kerry was very seriously considering McCain as his VP in 2004. What an unholy union that would be.

Starting to hear a lot about Ted Cruz but I really doubt he'll run considering he hasn't been in office even a year yet but neither was Obama. Cruz is Hispanic, very conservative, and is very very well spoken. He was a debate champion at Princeton, went on to Harvard Law School where he edited the Law Review and graduated magna cum laude. There are some questions about his eligibility since he was born in Canada to Cuban dissident father and American mother working on the oil fields up in Alberta, most people I've heard talk about it have said that he is eligible since his mother was an American citizen but I could see the return of 'birthers' if Cruz were to run. I think the eligibility question along with the fact that he hasn't be in the Senate long and that his ally Rand Paul will likely run will probably keep him out in 2016 but he'd be a very strong candidate if he did enter the race. I think he'll be near the top of the list for VP with numerous candidates.

You have governors like Scott Walker, Bobby Jindal, Nikki Haley, Susana Martinez, Bob McDonnell, Mitch Daniels, etc. I don't really think any of them have a chance at the nomination from what I've seen of them, I think as a VP candidate they'd be a lot more realistic. Scott Walker is the highest profile of them and he's not very charismatic and would be pretty divisive altho Paul Ryan's budget plan didn't overshadow the race in 2012 like some people thought it would so maybe you don't have to shy away from issues like that.

I wonder if Michelle or Sarah will have another go at it for 2016.
It would be worth it just for the terror is causes certain people.

I would never vote for Paul Ryan; I could see myself voting for Rand Paul, if only his libertarianism could be extended to women's right to control their own bodies.