Senate The 2016 U.S. Presidential Election has begun

Of course she did. She expected a clear path this time just like she did 8 years ago.

And you base that on…?

I base my view on what I've seen of her campaign rollout (quiet at first, confined mostly to smaller settings), more forceful by far than anything from her in 2007, much more progressive, with better campaign advisers. It's early, but she doesn't show any signs of taking anything for granted.

Bernie Sanders' strong showing has nothing to do with what Clinton has or has not expected. She's shown signs of taking him seriously, and I doubt she expected this to be an easy campaign. She's smarter than she was in 2007, and I think she knows what she's in for.

Charisma is not a necessary attribute for a successful presidency, and I imagine you've criticized the President many times over the years for being nothing but charismatic. If she knows what she's talking about and makes good decisions as President, that's all that really matters.

 

Unfortunately for the elderly Hillary Clinton, charisma is a very important attribute for running a successful campaign. Right now, her allies in the media are filtering everything she says and does. The day will come when that will no longer be possible (or practical). Ironic how her husband's biggest strength is her biggest weakness.

 

Elderly? It has already been said many times, and god only knows how many times it will be said over the next year and more, but she's the same age Reagan was when he ran in 1980. Would you call him elderly?

And no, charisma is not always necessary. Nixon was completely without charisma, and he won in a media-driven campaign in 1968. Ford had no charisma and he barely lost to Carter in 1976. H.W. Bush had no charisma and won in 1988.

So you were saying?

 

I actually thought HW had some charisma...

 

Well, you're probably right. He wasn't (isn't?) as devoid of it as Nixon and Ford. He just went up against one of the most charismatic politicians in history, and so any lack of it was all the more apparent.

 

Former Senator Jim Webb makes it official and jumps in on the Democratic side of things.

 

But will he still have it after he, you know, isn't eligible anymore?

 

Certainly not.

 

Sanders draws 10,000 in Wisconsin.

 

I was in error earlier-- Reagan was older than Clinton when he ran in 1980. More relevant for today, Jim Webb is older then Clinton, but I don't think you'll be reading much (if any) commentary about his age at any point in the campaign.

 

Literally as I was reading your post the PBS Newshour mentioned his age.

 

To be fair, I don't think you'll be reading much (if any) commentary about Jim Webb's candidacy at all.

 

Just because people worship a man whose presidency was marked by his descent into the abyss of Alzheimer's doesn't mean age (both for health and generational reasons) isn't a valid concern regarding Clinton.

 

Really? Well, that's interesting. I'm not sure if that's good or bad, but I'd read a decent amount about a possible Webb candidacy in the past six months or so, and I hadn't seen anything about his age. So, perhaps what you were reading was an aberration, or maybe it's something we'll see more.

And I agree that their age is a valid concern. Just so Clinton doesn't get an undue amount of attention, relative to other candidates of similar or greater age (which means both Webb and Sanders).

 

Yes, though in counterpoint, Beezer is really the only one who made an argument of that sort in regards to age. That certainly isn't a point that is made here, or in the broader national media dialogue, or even, for the most part, by conservative diehards.

 

Well, we'll see about that as time goes on. I certainly wouldn't mind being surprised in a good way.

 

So these are the major Republicans and Democrats who have declared so far.

Governor Walker of Wisconsin and Governor Kasich of Ohio are also expected to announced later this month too. After that, it seems like all potential major candidates for the GOP nomination will be known by the end of this month.

On the Democratic side, the field is also set with its major candidates, except maybe Joe Biden will jump in.







How would you rank and rate the Republicans? And the Democrats?

 

Lincoln Chafee has the least name recognition of all of them. I would expect his campagin to be very very short. I thought similar of Sanders, but he seems to be becoming a very viable candidate against Hilary. I wish Jim Webb hadn't been a one - term Congressman (his idea, he decided not to run for re-election). He did a lot of good things, I feel, for Virginia, so I'm a bit torn because I want him to do well, but realize he probably doesn't have much more of a shot as Chafee and O'Malley do.

I think the factt hat George Pataki was the only one willing to slam Trump for his Mexican comments says more about the GOP field than anything I could come up with.

 

One of the key differences between the Democratic contenders and the Republican ones is that every Democratic contender would likely make at least a decent president, and few (outside the usual voices on the right) would say that they would be incompetent or worse.

Not so much for the Republicans.

 

I maintain she's planned for running against Biden. If Biden does enter the race, things change significantly. Until Bernie entered, Biden was the only other potential front runner against Hillary. For that reason alone I agree that she's been taking nothing for granted. She definitely learned after Obama. And she knows she has some baggage. The big advantage she has is that 80% of the American people already know about it and more than half still don't care. Those who aren't going to vote for her probably never were going to anyway. Bernie is now under a microscope and he's doing great so far. But we'll see how things go once the real campaign heats up I guess. And there is still time for Joe to enter as well. Nothing is a certainty and I'm sure no one knows that better than Hillary and her campaign team.


On another note entirely. I absolutely love how Donald Trump has been doubling down on every single comment he's made. The man is like watching a natural disaster hit. And yet I can't look away. It's no wonder that Jeb keeps positioning himself as the front runner. My only hope is Trump turns his attention to Scott Walker soon. If he can take Walker down with him, that would be ideal.

I read that list of candidates above and went from Oks to "No", "No, God No!" and "NOOOOOO" by the time I got to Trump. I honestly would lose faith in humanity if some of those candidates managed the GOP nomination, let alone the Presidency itself.