The "Who is running?" tea leaves thread

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

If you guys liked Herman Cain, wait until you see Morry Taylor. This is going to be great.

He will be the biggest joke in political history, hands down. Dan Quayle has a better shot at the 2016 nomination.

Anyway, Gary Johnson has said he will run again.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

That's a reason I wouldn't support Rubio: too inexperienced.

Florida house of representatives 2000-2009
Speaker of the house in a mega state 2007-2009
JR Senator 2010-2016

Let me guess, your an Obama supporter?

First of all, RogueBeaver was one of the biggest Republican supporters of Romney who was not a hack. I don't judge fully by experience-my favorite for 2016 is a freshman Senator as well, but Rubio is far from the perfect standard-bearer for our party. He has many skeletons in his closet that will eventually come out.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

2016 Republican Primary is going to be crazy 

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Jesse Ventura has again floated a possible 2016 run, with Howard Stern as his VP candidate:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/jesse-ventura-2016-presidential-bid-92091.html

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He originally floated this idea back in September:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=159430.0

Stern has said that Ventura is his best interview. I would love that ticket. My favorite former Governor and my favorite media personality on the same ticket!

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Christie took shots at Jindal and Paul.

That fat  is starting to annoy me. There is a differance between stating your raw, honest opinion, which Christie used to do, and sucking the balls of the establishment because he thinks he is Mitt Romney's heir for some reason.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I forget if this was already mentioned, but Cruz, Rubio, Perry, and Jindal will all be a "two-day Defending the American Dream Summit, a Florida confab hosted by the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity Foundation (David Koch is chairman of the board, helped start the group and is reportedly its largest funder)":

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/08/30/2016-republican-hopefuls-flock-to-koch-backed-conference/

And I was there .

Cruz gave a great speech. Rubio, Perry, and Jindal were gone by day two. Lots of elderly teabaggers and beautiful young classy conservative women as well.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Peter King is in, at least for now

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/peter-king-2016_n_3881286.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

He might as well form an exploratory committee and make it semi official.

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Rand Paul says that presidential speculation about him is good for Kentucky:

http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/325961-rand-paul-presidential-speculation-good-for-kentucky

Jesse Ventura again floats the possibility of running for president as an Independent in 2016, with Howard Stern as his running mate:

http://dailycaller.com/2013/09/30/game-over-jesse-ventura-wants-howard-stern-as-running-mate-for-2016-presidential-run/

Howard Stern has shut down the VP bid, saying to cohost Robin Quivers "I just f[inks]ing can't say no" on his show a few weeks back. I am a devoted listener, so I will keep my eyes (or ears) open for any further mention.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Dean and Santorum will practice their debating skills when they debate each other on "The Proper Role of Government in a Free Society" at Fort Hays State University in Kansas next month:

http://www.gbtribune.com/section/69/article/61748/

That's awesome - I might try and attend that.

I wouldn't mind watching that, despite my strong dislike of both Dean and Santorum.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Much of this stuff:

http://therun2016.com/cruz-paul-cant-elected-president/

was mentioned in the Cruz vs. Paul thread, but therun2016 follows up with this:

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This was suggested in the Vogue story back in September:

https://uselectionatlas.org/FORUM/index.php?topic=164982.msg3872928#msg3872928

that Paul's wife Kelley doesn't sound too excited about him running for president.

Weird, in the past Kelley Paul has been very, very supportive of a possible Paul run. It could be a decoy to keep the spotlight off of Paul.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

I just saw a link from Tea Party Express on Facebook (so I hope it is just their usual BS) that John McCain is flirting with a 2016 run.

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Bernie Sanders would make an excellent third-party candidate in 2016!

Indeed, he should go for it!

Actually, I could vote for him in protest if we nominated somebody I despise (which really only means Santorum and Cruz on his worst day).

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Possible Hillary campaign managers, with Guy Cecil topping the list.

No Patti Solis Doyle?!?

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Clinton is stumped by a tough question from a six year old at an event in Portland, OR:

link

Wow. I think that was the first time besides the Benghazi hearings where she actually came across as likeable to me.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Looks like Mung Beans is heading to Iowa. Testing the water with potential Kloubuchar donors perhaps?

So I'm going off to Iowa tomorrow...

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Clinton will be making two visits to the early caucus state of Nevada this fall, once in September and once in October:

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/211311-no-plans-to-slow-down-from-clinton

The latter is at UNLV, where she'll be charging a speaking fee of $225,000.  This has prompted protests from some students over the exorbitant amount of $ that the school is shelling out for her.

I bet it's the College Republicans leading that protest. Why do they hate the free market? Why do they hate and envy successful wealthy people?

Consumers protesting high prices is an integral part of the free market...

Except when Democrats/liberals do it, then they're socialist communist nazi heathens.

Let's recap: According to your super-duper secret sources, only UNLV students who are members of College Republicans could possibly object to Hillary Clinton getting paid over $200,000 to give a generic speech whose details will be completely forgotten in two weeks rather than spending the money on something even remotely benefiting any of the students at UNLV.  Furthermore, Republicans clearly believe Democrats protesting high prices are "socialist, communist, nazi heathens" even though the only person making this absurd claim is IceSpear.  Ergo, Deus' point is invalid because he believes Democrats protesting high prices are  "socialist, communist, nazi heathens," never mind that Deus is a Libertarian and not a Republican.  Somehow Icespear's logic now makes even less sense than it did when I started this post

Yeah, I'm sure all these Republicans who want to abolish pell grants and student loans are oh so concerned about how they could be using $225,000 to help students instead of spending it on a speech.

When did I say he was a Republican? I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy that many of these people whining about how the college is "wasting" money would have no problem doing it for a Republican making a commencement speech, and also have no problem with colleges wasting much bigger sums on money on frivolous matters. It's a matter of politics, not principle.

How do you know the students protesting are even Republicans?

I didn't say all of them were, but no doubt they're the ones who are the most outraged. It's not a coincidence that nobody cared about this speaking fee nontroversy until a few weeks ago when the Republicans desperately needed an anti-Hillary narrative. As stated in that very article, nobody seemed to care when she got an even bigger amount from speaking at UCLA back in March.

How do you know they're the ones most outraged?

Because they have both the political and practical reasons to be outraged. Also, if it was nonpartisan and Democratic students that suddenly became outraged, why did this only occur after national Republicans and the right wing media started harping about Hillary's wealth and her speaking fees?

The fact that the students have been able to organize on this at all has me suspecting the five campus Republicans oiled up the True Leftists and got them out on the streets .

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Portman may set up an exploratory committee after the midterms.

I guess Kasich is not running.

Kasich was never going to run, as much as he wanted too.  If he did, he'd get demolished.  On the other hand, Portman may well run and if he is the nominee, I could definitely see him beating Hillary Clinton, O'Malley, etc.  He's not unbeatable or anything and isn't even unbeatable in Ohio, but a Portman candidacy would scare me infinitely more than Jeb, Christie, Rand, grumpy SoCon candidate #83, Rubio, etc.  He'd be an extremely electable candidate and comes across as a pretty reasonable guy despite being quite right-wing (particularly on economic issues).  Plus the gay marriage thing will give him tons of Moderate Hero cred.  Thankfully, I doubt he can make it through the primaries (although far from impossible given that the big business wing always beats the SoCon wing when the two have their quad-annual clash during the GOP Presidential primaries), but if he does, he's got at least 50-50 odds against any of the Democrats being talked about.

He also was the Obama stand-in during the Romney practice debates and is known to be one of the best debaters in the GOP.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Here's someone from out of left field: Bob Ehrlich, Maryland's former governor.

lol. So he's going to be 2016's Jon Huntsman. Except without the record.

And without a good electoral history .

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No Ryan announcent?

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George Pataki allegedly thinking (again) about running for president:

http://pagesix.com/2014/09/29/george-pataki-mulls-2016-bid-meets-with-david-koch/

Pataki's presidential ambitions are the strangest thing. He hasn't held office in nearly a decade, he's not well-known nationally, he's not much of a power within the Republican Party (even at the state level, he's almost invisible), and he's not running as an ideologue or to sell books (at least I don't think he is - he's not much of a personality, and  I have to imagine that consulting would be more lucrative for any former NY Governor).

I have been told by people who are "in the know" that Pataki was dead set on running, had agreed to be part of the next debate, and had a small list of respectable endorsements lined up. Then, out of the blue, he just decided not to run. Remember that he even had a very detailed Pataki for President website that was leaked online hours before his planned announcement.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Heard over word of Facebook Dennis Michael Lynch announced his run for 2016.

I haven't heard anything about it.

Edit: Oh my God, the Palm Beach County Tea Party (my former Tea Party) wants him to run. I never heard of him until now .

The announcement is on his official page, three posts down.

Linky.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Heard over word of Facebook Dennis Michael Lynch announced his run for 2016.

His announcement speech.

Given his connections to Fox, I wonder if he'll be in any debates at least on that channel.

Why has there been no media coverage at all? Not even a mention on wikipedia? I know he has no chance in hell, but even Bob Barr's announcement in 08 got some coverage.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Heard over word of Facebook Dennis Michael Lynch announced his run for 2016.

His announcement speech.

Given his connections to Fox, I wonder if he'll be in any debates at least on that channel.

Why has there been no media coverage at all? Not even a mention on wikipedia? I know he has no chance in hell, but even Bob Barr's announcement in 08 got some coverage.

Because he's completely insignificant.

Barr at least was a member of congress and had some notoriety, notably during the Clinton Impeachment. Plus, he was in Borat...

Forgot about Borat!

Still, the media covered really, really minor candidates before. I think Lynch is more relevant than Roemer, and Roemer got some media coverage when he announced. I haven't even found a Conservative blog mentioning this development, and the people who have added in Bob Ehrlich to the 2016 Republican candidates wikipage haven't mentioned Lynch let. It just seems kind of weird to me.

He may not be a Herman Cain or Mitt Romney, or even Thad McCotter, but you'd think he'd get more coverage than John Davis's 2012 bid .

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

To answer the question in the title: Jim Webb .

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Something tells me Ben Carson's foreign policy knowledge is going to be similarly disastrous (but not quite as bad) as Sarah Palin.

I think he'll remind me of Herman Cain:

CAIN: I’m ready for the ‘gotcha’ questions and they’re already starting to come. And when they ask me who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan I’m going to say, you know, I don’t know. Do you know?

http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/10/09/339879/cain-uzbekistan-beki-beki-stan-stan/

I'm no fan of Carson, but the cliche that Carson is Cain 2.0 needs to die. Say what you want about Carson, but he is very articulate.