Eh, well it seems to be That Time Again, Kids.
Figured I'd just start the thread for general commentary and news.
Seems we've got two official entrants on the Republican side:
Ted Cruz--not someone whose name I knew before the possibility of a presidential run came up, in all honesty. At the moment I don't have much to say about him or his chances.
Rand Paul--well, now this is interesting. I didn't honestly expect him to run. Strikes me as a Wild Card: divisive within his own party and with a history of being kind of a pain in the ass to its more established leaders, but potentially appealing to Independents and some other people who are not traditional party-line Republican voters. I wouldn't estimate his chances as very good--I mean, Romney was a divisive figure within the party but had the clear support of its "Establishment", and look where that got him. Still, I have personally come to see Rand Paul as something of a lovable goofball who believes in some kind of nutty things (listing longstanding federal departments you'd want to completely abolish doesn't really mark you as a seasoned realist) but sometimes makes headlines pulling stunts that I find entertaining. Thus I now have a kind of piqued curiosity to see just how far this little outing of his is going to get.
One Democratic entrant, as of this morning:
Hillary Clinton--I know she's polling very well among Democratic primary voters, enough so that there isn't exactly a long line of people champing at the bit to go up against her. On the other hand, I want to say that nominating the person who lost a primary against your last general election winner (especially when that person is the outgoing two-term president) probably tends to be a low-percentage shot. I mean, look what happened to McCain. I don't think the electorate likes it when you try to serve them the last round's runner-up as leftovers.
I don't even know who else could be described as in the offing for a potential run. Brian Schweitzer (governor of Montana) officially bowed out a long time ago. There was some muttering about Jim Webb (former Navy Secretary and former senator from Virginia)--I guess Wikipedia says he's "Formally Exploring a Candidacy." Same with Biden. Neither of them has been too vocal about it.
So it seems like a sparse field on the Dem side.
But I suppose these things remain to be seen.
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