Sunday, April 19, 2015

19 Months...19 Hopefuls...and Hillary

We are nineteen months away from the 2016 elections. Coincidentally 19 Republican hopefuls made their way to New Hampshire this weekend in hopes of convincing Granite State voters that they should be anointed the most powerful person in the world.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is here touting his record as head of the cheese state. Unfortunately his rendition of the actual events bears little resemblance to the truth.
Mike Huckabee is here. He warned potential military recruits that they should wait until President Obama leaves office before joining because: “the president hates Christians.”

Chris Christie has accredited himself well in a series of town hall meetings. He likes to brag about his experiences as a “Red” governor in a very “Blue” state. Somehow he manages to gloss over the fact that the New Jersey economy is in the tank, unemployment is skyrocketing and his stewardship of the Garden State has resulted in a series of crippling credit downgrades.

Ted Cruz showed up. He wants to reform the tax code to a flat tax and get rid of the IRS. But who will collect the flat tax? Of course he still wants to “repeal every last word of Obamacare.” Funny how he and his family just signed up for it. You would have thought that after encouraging others to go without insurance rather than sign up for the president’s socialist experiment he would have led by example and followed the same path. Do as I say…

Florida Senator Marco Rubio has thrown his hat into the ring. Rubio is the fresh faced new comer whose claim to fame is that he flip flops on issues more than the daily catch off his favorite Miami Beach. He likes to portray Secretary Clinton’s campaign as something out of the stone ages. Unfortunately his comments have a tendency to highlight the shortcomings of his good friend Jeb Bush.

Jeb of course is here as well. He has yet to formerly announce although he is making all the right noises. It is hard to see his campaign gaining any traction unless he can win at least one of the first three primaries. He is far too moderate for Iowa. And it’s hard to see him pulling off a victory in South Carolina. That leaves New Hampshire. If he can’t pull off a win here then the leading money bundler may be finished before he gets started.

On the Democratic side of course there is Hillary and…Hillary. Unless of course you count former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley. That’s O’Malley jumping up and down behind the last row of reporters desperately seeking attention. Recent national polls show the governor with 1% of the vote. Clearly the Democratic nomination is Hillary’s to win unless she continues down her favored path of self-destruction. Her campaign roll out hit the ground with all the pizazz of a bag of flour hitting concrete. She eschewed her private plane in favor of a mini-van and began a road trip through the primary states in search of “everyday Americans.” She showed up in Ohio at a local Chipotle wearing sunglasses and made no effort to engage the other patrons. At a scheduled event her mini-van blew by senior citizens waiting to greet her at the front door; choosing instead a more secluded rear entrance. Her much publicized round table meeting was populated with carefully vetted politicos certain not to make any embarrassing waves. You would think that a former First Lady, US Senator and Secretary of State would be capable of handling herself in an open forum. Apparently not.

19 months. 19 Republican hopefuls…and Hillary. The best and the brightest…

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