Plan B Forum

Rick wrote:I realize this is still quite early but I'm curious as to whom ya'll would like to see in/win the 2016 Presidential election (Rubato I have taken you off ignore cause believe it or not I am interested in your choice also).

Personally, I feel the nut jobs in the tea party have hurt the GOP to the point that if they win this election it would border on miraculous. Having posted that my choice comes as no surprise it would be Huckleberry if he would come of his radio gig, which he actually seems to enjoy. Beyond that I haven't a clue.

and I'm still not 100% convinced she will,

Huge ‘Super PAC’ Is Moving Early to Back Clinton

The Obama political operation that once buried Hillary Rodham Clinton’s White House ambitions is now rapidly converging around her possible 2016 presidential bid, conferring on Mrs. Clinton enormous early advantages in money, expertise and voter targeting techniques.

On Thursday, Priorities USA Action, a “super PAC” that played an important role in helping re-elect President Obama, announced that it was formally aligning itself with Mrs. Clinton and would begin raising money to fend off potential opponents for 2016.

The group — the largest Democratic super PAC in the country — also named new directors, appointments that will cement the group’s pro-Clinton tilt and thrust veterans of Mr. Obama’s political and fund-raising operation into the center of the post-Obama Democratic Party.

The move is perhaps the earliest start to big-dollar fund-raising in support of a nonincumbent presidential candidate, providing a fund-raising portal for wealthy Clinton supporters eager to help her White House prospects — and to the legions of others eager to ingratiate themselves with Mrs. Clinton and her inner circle.

Jim Messina, Mr. Obama’s campaign manager in 2012, who has forged close ties with many Democratic donors, will serve as co-chairman of the revamped super PAC and an affiliated nonprofit, along with Jennifer M. Granholm, the former Michigan governor, who is among the most persistent voices calling for Mrs. Clinton to enter the 2016 race.

Mr. Messina joins a growing list of Obama veterans aligning themselves with Mrs. Clinton: Jeremy Bird and Mitch Stewart, for example, who led Mr. Obama’s field efforts in 2012, are working closely with Ready for Hillary, a pro-Clinton super PAC that is focused on recruiting small donors and building lists of grass-roots supporters.

Priorities, by contrast, has begun seeking six- and seven-figure checks to power major advertising expenditures in support of Mrs. Clinton — including, if necessary, responses to attacks by Republicans and conservatives in advance of a formal campaign declaration. (Like all super PACs, the group would be barred from coordinating spending and strategy with Mrs. Clinton if she entered the presidential race.)

“I think the numbers clearly show that she’s the strongest presidential candidate on the Democratic side,” Mr. Messina said in an interview. “And Priorities is going to be there for her if she decides to run.”

Nick Merrill, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton, said of Priorities: “While they are an independent entity acting on their own, their enthusiasm is flattering. In the end though, only she can make that very personal decision, and as she has said, she won’t be doing so anytime soon.”

Mr. Messina is now the highest-profile member of Mr. Obama’s inner circle to openly back Mrs. Clinton for president, a move that can only fuel perceptions that Mrs. Clinton’s potential candidacy has the tacit endorsement of Mr. Obama himself.

Donors and others involved with Priorities said that they would look to far surpass the $67 million that Priorities spent on attack ads against Mitt Romney during the 2012 election. Those ads — including the “coffin ad,” featuring workers laid off from a plant acquired by Bain Capital, Mr. Romney’s former firm — helped define Mr. Romney early in the campaign, a blueprint the group hopes to use on Mrs. Clinton’s prospective Republican opponents.

I would vote for Rand Paul in a second.

.would reluctantly vote for Ted Cruz or Jeb Bush.

I really can't stomach Cruz because I consider him to be nothing but a cynical manipulative self-promoting phony who doesn't really believe in or care about anything beyond his own personal enrichment and aggrandizement...

I would support (in fact: I would campaign for) Rand Paul.

I honestly think that Jeb Bush is unelectable because of his name.

he’s there “because right now I'm running for President.”