Your punts?

[Gob]

No-one has formally declared but these are some of the names to watch:

early Republican frontrunner is Jeb Bush
but New Jersey Governor Chris Christie could battle Bush for the party's centre ground
darling of the Tea Party is Texas Senator Ted Cruz
firebrand liberal Elizabeth Warren is championed by many in the Democratic Party
libertarian Rand Paul has his supporters - and enemies - among Republicans
Hillary Clinton will have learnt much from her failed campaign of 2008

Bush vs Clinton again is my bet, yours? (Feel free to add names.)

[MajGenl.Meade]

Gob, Gob. Your spelling gets worse... punts indeed!

[Gob]

LOL!! Thanks you Benny Hill!!

[wesw]

gob, you are depressing me. with those choices tyranny doesn t seem so bad after all......

[Lord Jim]

Bush vs Clinton again is my bet

I'd say that's the odds on most likely match up...

[oldr_n_wsr]

Bush vs Clinton again is my bet,

This is the USA dammit, can't we come up with something better?

[Lord Jim]

Well oldr, I would argue that last time around we did worse...(Romney vs Obama)

And given some of the potential candidates, we could do considerably worse the next time...

My absolute nightmare scenario would be Paul vs Warren...

[Crackpot]

As candidates go they don't seem bad. Conceptually OTOH it's nightmarish. Jen seems far more like his father than his brother which is a huge positive. His problem is going to be both convincing America of that and explaining why being like his father is a good thing. (Most miss that Bush Sr. was a solid conservative who put reality ahead if ideology even at the expense of his political career). So far Jeb has been doing that by refusing to back down on immigration reform and common core. If he can find a way of gently feeding his little brother into the meat grinder he might have a chance at winning.

[wesw]

yeah, I greatly misjudged the elder bush while he was in office. at that time I really despised Reagan, largely because of the actions of people like Ollie north, and I felt that everyone in that admin was tainted. luckily I kept learning, and was man enough to admit I didn t know it all, and that I could be wrong. prudent is good. the relationship that bush the elder and bill Clinton now enjoy should be a lesson to us all.....

[Gob]

American aristocracies, like the Bush and Clinton dynasties, are able to shed scandal like water off a ducks back, are they not?

[wesw]

I think that in a bush Clinton race a third party could actually stand a chance....

[Crackpot]

Clinton isn't nearly a dynasty heck they're not even blood related (though being from Arkansas we might want to double check that). As for the Bushes yeah they're a dynasty but compared to the Kennedieys or the Rosevelt/Tafts? I think the republic will survive.

[rubato]

The Bushs are something of a dynasty but surely not the Clintons. You cannot have a 'dynasty' with only 1 generation represented.

yrs,
rubato

[wesw]

ok, how about a jeb bush/bill Clinton ticket?

[BoSoxGal]

It turns my stomach to think of another Bush in the White House, but if he runs, he's probably better than any alternative I've heard about from the Republicans.

I'd much rather they run Ted Cruz.

[rubato]

He seems to have avoided the whole exercise and fitness thing most recent candidates have gone for:






Rather portly.

And he's got a lot of housecleaning to do:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/won ... ng-to-cut/

The lucrative Obamacare connection that Jeb Bush is trying to cut
By Jason Millman December 26, 2014

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is stepping down from the board of a hospital chain that's benefited from the 2010 federal health-care law opposed by his party. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

The for-profit hospital chain Tenet Healthcare announced on Christmas Eve that Jeb Bush would be stepping down from its board of directors by the end of the year. Bush, who has served on the board of Tenet since 2007, is starting to cut his business ties as he explores a run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. And there's one obvious reason why keeping Tenet on his resume might not look so good politically: Tenet has benefited greatly from the Affordable Care Act, which much of the GOP base is still committed to repealing.

Bush is giving up a lucrative board post. He earned $128,500 in cash plus $170,000 in stock last year for a total of $298,500 according to Tenet's 2013 proxy statement.

And he sat on the board during a particularly profitable time for Tenet.

Tenet is the country’s third-largest publicly traded hospital chain, with 80 hospitals across 14 states and more than 200 outpatient centers in 16 states. The Dallas-based hospital chain immediately reported reaping the benefits of Obamacare’s coverage expansion since it took effect at the start of this year.

The hospital chain’s share of uninsured patients and charity care patients has dropped significantly, while the share of Medicaid patients has increased. In just the second quarter this year, Tenet saw unpaid care drop $78 million.

This swing has been more pronounced in the five states where it operates hospitals that have opted into the ACA’s Medicaid expansion: Arizona, California, Illinois, Massachusetts and Michigan. Tenet’s also seeing more patients come in with private coverage from the Obamacare exchanges, as seen from this slide from the company’s third-quarter results issued last month.

Although the party who denies global warming is so good at denying reality that it can hardly matter. Mitty still got votes after saying 47% of the country are parasites.


yrs,
rubato

[Lord Jim]

the party who denies global warming

Gen'l, can I get a grammar Nazi ruling here?

Shouldn't that be either, "the party that denies global warming", or "the party which denies global warming"?

[MajGenl.Meade]

It is difficult to determine.

rubato may have been referring to "the party" as a group - Republicans perchance. He may equally have been referring to a singular individual - a party who denies global warming mayhap.

Party of the first part and all that. It seems more likely that he is referring to the plural party - in which case "who" is out of order. As to that vs. which, there's some obscure old fogey rule about restrictive clauses vs. unrestrictive. At 4:49 Tottenham Hotspur time in the a of m, I can't be bothered to work it out.

[Econoline]

[dgs49]

I have a dreadful history of handicapping presidential races, but I would hope that sometime between now and spring 2016 most Democrats will recognize that Hillary has never actually accomplished anything positive. She is to politics what Cher is to singing: a superstar with nothing to back it up.

And Bush fatigue is real