At CFIF, I note that at least 30 potential GOPers could make a real run at the presidency in 2016. I also think — and PLEASE don’t send hateful comments if you disagree; a difference of opinion on a particular speech is not an ideological litmust test — that Marco Rubio didn’t really do a very good speech the other night (even apart from the silly controversy over the water), and that therefore he took a small step back toward the field rather than separating himself from it.
And no, I am not saying I want Jeb Bush to be the next nominee. If you can read, you’ll see that I think he is a betting favorite, not my favorite. In fact, not even close.
Also:
You’ll note that I’ve rated Bobby Jindal, Mitch Daniels and Susana Martinez as the three potentially strongest general election candidates, should either win the nomination….
And:
[J]ust as the current presidency is unlike any we’ve seen before – more radical, more divisive, more dismissive of constitutional limits – so, too, is the emergence of a galvanizing leader on the right a far more pressing necessity than it has been since the 1970s. It’s not that a leader must emerge immediately, but it is that somebody with the ability to effectively clarify the issues must emerge in time to provide a forceful counterweight to Obama’s efforts to consolidate power beyond recover.
I think a guy to watch, whether for 2016 or beyond, is also the guy whose race should be a national cause celebre for conservatives this year: Ken Cuccinelli, for governor of Virginia. It’s going to be a heck of a race — and, thematically at least, it might set a template for the near quadrennium.
