14 Comments on “Top Contenders: Who are the favourites and long shots in the GOP’s 2016 bid to retake the White House?”

1. 
   Bob English said at 10:17 am on December 7th, 2014:

   Add to the list my “Jon Huntsman candidate” for 2016 which would be Brian Sandoval. He is very popular in Nevada (and the Southwest) and I personally think would be a strong addition to an R November 2016 ticket (top or bottom.)

   That distinction came to being since Art will never let me forget that last go around I said that I thought Huntman would be a good general election candidates for the R’s…unfortunately one minor detail was his campaign in the primaries for the R nomination went nowhere.

2. 
   Bob English said at 10:19 am on December 7th, 2014:

   One interesting detail on Rand Paul is that his Senate seat is up for election in 2016. I just read that Kentucky law does not permit anyone to run for two national offices at the same time but he may be considering challenging that.

3. 
   We need said at 10:55 am on December 7th, 2014:

   a brave, smart, Conservative candidate, period: no more b.s. about how a Conservative can’t win, so we go down the most vanilla, RINO road, and down to defeat, again. We have the chance, in 2015, with 54 seats now in the Senate, to build a message and show the voters there’s still hope for this country. May we not spin off into establishment lib Republicans vs. grass-roots Conservatives, into a dozen different cliques that tear each other apart, in primaries and debates, again. If we do it again, we are doomed to the next socialist phony who carries on the Obama destruction of our economy and way of life!

4. 
   Bob English said at 1:46 pm on December 7th, 2014:

   @We need….regarding “destruction of our economy”…November was the best month for job growth in 15 years. The economy has been averaging 224,000 new jobs/month for the past 12 months. I would suggest that the “destruction of our economy” label belongs to the months prior to when Obama took office when the economy was losing 700,000 jobs/month.

   Still a long ways to go so hopefully right wing House Republicans don’t to anything foolish like trying to shut down the govt again.

5. 
   @ Bob English said at 2:44 pm on December 7th, 2014:

   Those jobs are all BS, low pay; part time jobs.

   Even the NY Times agrees

   http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/28/business/economy/recovery-has-created-far-more-low-wage-jobs-than-better-paid-ones.html?_r=0

   And if you think the shut down was a horror story, everyone got paid, it was only about 15% of the government and the country survived.

6. 
   Mike Harmon said at 3:29 pm on December 7th, 2014:

   BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy has denied Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana a fourth term, calling his Senate victory “the exclamation point” on midterm elections that put Republicans in charge on Capitol Hill for President Barack Obama’s last two years in office.

   “This victory happened because people in Louisiana voted for a government that serves us, that does not tell us what to do,” Cassidy said in Baton Rouge, the state capital.

   Who from the list might actually serve the people and govern with conservative principles? Cruz, Walker, Carson and Paul

   The rest will betray us and be satisfied with managing an orderly decline of our great country.

   Of course we could continue the oligarchy or just go right to royalty with Queen Bee Clinton and Prince Bush as VP.

   Speaking of betrayal…and managing an orderly decline…

   People like Christie because he “tells it like it is” with the exception of $83 billion in unfunded liabilities, 430,000 illegals, 830,000 on state entitlements, Obama abuses of Executive Orders, Obamacare collapsing, Sandy Relief efforts faltering, deteriorating economy and confiscatory property and estate taxes….

   Time for Christie to start governing NJ – right here, right now, right here, right now…

   Feel free to pick up the chant as I am in protest mode.

7. 
   Art Gallagher said at 4:04 pm on December 7th, 2014:

   Mike,

   We need more than conservative principles. We need a leader and an executive.

   Walker, Jindal, Bush and Perry have the best gubernatorial records, but each has serious political flaws. It is really a shame that Jeb’s last name is Bush, because almost everything else he has going for him is positive.

   Christie is the most talented candidate of those mentioned. But I don’t see how he gets elected with his record, which has fallen apart this year since his reelection.

   Cruz and Paul or both too risky, given their lack of executive experience. We should have learned our lesson about inexperienced ideologues with Obama.

8. 
   The Winning ticket is said at 7:37 pm on December 7th, 2014:

   Governor John Kasich (R-Ohio) for President and Governor Suzanna Martinez (R-New Mexico) for Vice President.

   Someone with an ACTUAL record of balancing the Federal Budget and successful Governor of a KEY state that R’s need to win the Presidency. Martinez will bring the woman vote as well as the Hispanic vote. Border State Governor, tough on immigration, social conservatives will get excited about her, more so than Sarah (don’t want to say her last name because I don’t want her to even think of running.)

9. 
   A.M. said at 9:46 am on December 8th, 2014:

   To be truthful, I am done with the mini-monarchies with the Clinton’s & Bush’s. I never liked G.H.W.B. or G.W.B.

   I really like the idea of Susana Martinez. I would love C. Rice, but it will never happen. Both parties would destroy her.

10. 
    @@Bob, said at 12:51 pm on December 8th, 2014:

    I do not know how old you are, or if you have kids/ grandkids, but, if you don’t think this president adding $ 7 trillion more to our debt isn’t bad for our economy now, and in the future, I can’t help you.. Also, why do the Obama apologists look so brightly at a pre- holiday increase in a ( largely seasonal/ part time jobs increase, without figuring in the new unemployment claims, as well as the looming fact that now, under THIS president, we now have 92 MILLION Americans not working, is beyond me: ok, it includes the old, disabled and children, but, when nearly 1/3 of your populace is largely depending on the sweat of the remaining,working taxpayers, this is a disaster that is getting worse, by the day! And yes, we do need a strong, brave, principled Conservative LEADER like Reagan, to even begin to beat back this alarming trend, the libs, the socialists “transforming America,” and the complicit media, and damned Hollywood elites- oh yes,we sure do!!

11. 
    Bob English said at 2:16 pm on December 8th, 2014:

    @@@Bob….sorry to report that most of the new jobs are full time jobs.

    http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/12/05/november-jobs-report-how-many-new-jobs-are-actually-full-time/

    In the past year, there are 2.5 million more full-time workers in November than one year ago, compared with around 309,000 more part-time workers.

    Don’t get me wrong, there is still a big hole to get out of but if the economy can come close to maintaining this rates of jobs growth for another year or two it will be one heck of an improvement from the near depression level economy that Obama started with.

12. 
    @ Bob English said at 8:41 pm on December 8th, 2014:

    Are they high paying jobs there Bob, or are they just low paying service type jobs where people need two of them to stay alive.

    Show me some stats that they are meaning ful jobs.

13. 
    Selectivism said at 7:30 am on December 9th, 2014:

    is disingenuous. If you run right past and ignore the outrageous debt racking up every day, and the number of people who have given up looking for full- time work, then figure in the high percentage of unemployed minorities and minority young men, and even new college grads, the overall unemployment rate is really more like 10-12 per cent, and not getting any better. This, plus the increasingly confiscatory taxation, is simply tragic, now, and for the future.

14. 
    Bob English said at 12:16 pm on December 9th, 2014:

    @selectivism….your right in the sense that there is still a way to go to get to the point where everyone who wants a job can get one and to get to the point where there is enough demand for employees that wages can start increasing a lot more than they have been. If nothing else it goes to show just how deep the hole was after the recession/depression in terms of new jobs that were needed to fill those that were lost not to mention the 100k new jobs that are needed every month just to keep even with new people entering the labor force..

    I would suggest though that the kind of job growth which has been going on for the past several years and especially the past year (where the average is 224k new jobs every month) is definitely the right tract to getting where we want to be.