Will there be a bunch of "taking turns" in first again?

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

In the last primary season, we had a bunch frontrunners for the nomination, from Perry to Cain to Gingrich to Santorum etc. Will this happen again this primary season, and if so, who do you think will be the frontrunners?

[dudeabides]

In the last primary season, we had a bunch frontrunners for the nomination, from Perry to Cain to Gingrich to Santorum etc. Will this happen again this primary season, and if so, who do you think will be the frontrunners?

I do believe this will happen again with such a large field.

In the end, I expect Scott Walker and Rand Paul, in that order, to do the best against front-runner Jeb Bush.

Governor Walker is a mainstream conservative and therefore has a lot of appeal to those who dislike Bush on the right. Senator Paul is a libertarian and won't have to compete with any other libertarians running.

However, the moderate wing of the party will be strongly in support of Bush, and he will win enough conservatives like Romney did to win the nomination.

[Mister Mets]

Maybe not.

A major difference is that last time the alternatives to Romney were deeply flawed and couldn't hold up to scrutiny.

A Rubio or Walker might be able to hold onto frontrunner status, or even build on it (with good poll numbers comes good publicity, with good publicity comes good poll numbers) and keep a commanding lead.

A Donald Trump, Mike Huckabee or Ben Carson probably isn't going to be able to do that, as there are more reasons to vote against them.

[Mr. Morden]

Looks like instead of "taking turns" we're in for a protracted period in which 4-5 candidates are bunched up within 2 points or so of the lead.  So it's really no one's "turn" at any given moment, since it's a 4 or 5-way tie.

[publicunofficial]

2012 was a result of no one really wanting to nominate Romney, but the moment any of his challengers took the lead their campaign would crumble under the weight of media scrutiny. The person polling highest is the one who the media will work hardest to take down, but with 2012 most of the candidates were so bad that the media didn't even have to work hard to find gaffes and insane past statements.

2016 will likely still have some back-and-forth, but most of the candidates are of a higher caliber and might remain in the spotlight for much longer if they take the lead.