And Chris Christie makes 14... It's not a horse race, it's a cavalry charge

At this point it's probably easier to list the Republicans who aren't running for president.

Four years late, and a few scandals later, Chris Christie finally decided he's got what it takes to beat Hillary Clinton. Because apparently he says what he means and he means what he says.

That's his official campaign slogan, anyway.

In Real Life he sends a somewhat more muddled message. Unless he actually kept that promise he made to lower my property taxes, and I'm just too stupid to see how he did it. Maybe I only imagine I'm paying more than ever each quarter.

Christie is very good at talking the talk. Heck, go back and read my posts about "Governor Awesome" from 4 or 5 years ago. Because yeah, I bought into his hype. Until he let me, and everyone else, down.

Is he a better governor than Jon Corzine was? Sure.

But that's kind of like saying one root canal is better than two.

Then again, he's not the worst person running. That distinction still belongs to Donald Trump. So, since someone asked me this morning, here's how I see ranking the 2016 field.

1. Ted Cruz
2. Marco Rubio
3. Rick Perry
4. Carly Fiorina
5. Bobby Jindal
6. Rand Paul
7. Chris Christie
8. Jeb Bush
9. Rick Santorum
10. Mike Huckabee
11. Lindsey Graham
12. George Pataki
13. Ben Carson
14. Donald Trump

If as expected Scott Walker jumps in, I'd slot him at #2 and bump everyone else down a notch. Word is that John Kasich is also going to declare (hey, why not make it an even 16!) in which case he'd fall between Jeb Bush and Rick Santorum.

Quite frankly though, the GOP needs to whittle this list down PDQ. Keep the top 3 (or 4 if Walker gets in) and relegate the rest to angling for VP or a cabinet slot. Too many candidates dilutes the message. And it lets the media play them against each other instead of contrasting them with the Hilldabeest. The last thing we need is a repeat of 2012's circular firing squad, er debates. By the time Mitt Romney emerged from that guantlet he was damaged goods, and we got stuck with 4 more years of Obamunism because of that.

So my dream ticket right now is Cruz / Fiorina. Ted Cruz embodies everything our Founding Fathers stood for, and he's not beholden to the GOP establishment. Carly fights, and she doesn't come off as a bully like Christie does.

What we need is for Reince Priebus or Mitt Romney to drag the other candidates into a room and explain the facts of life to them. Get them out now for the good of the country. Rally the party behind a team that can win. And then go out there and win one for the Gipper.

Posted at 14:16 by Chris Wysocki   [/election]   Comments | Perm Link |
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