Much of Bernie Sanders’ career is centered around his disgust for money in politics. He hates the fact of it, hates its effects, and, naturally, he has deep disdain for the process of raising it. The bigger the number, the more contempt he has. “I don’t do these fundraisers for $100,000 apiece or $10,000,” the Vermont senator, a self-described independent socialist, spat in his heavy Brooklyn accent during a recent speech to the National Press Club. “I don’t know anybody who has that kind of money!” His average contribution, he humble-bragged, is $45.
Now he’s thinking about running for president, in what is shaping up to be the most expensive election in history, likely exceeding 2012’s total of $2.6 billion.
Read More >>Sen. Ted Cruz is not just the first major candidate to announce a 2016 bid — he’s also the first to make serious moves in the likability primary.
The Texas Republican has been seeking to soften his sometimes rigid public persona throughout his rollout this week: talking about his family background during his campaign launch at Liberty University on Monday, being candidly photographed with his wife and daughters, and adding non-political TV shows to his post-announcement tour.
Read More >>New Hampshire is considered critical to Gov. Chris Christie’s potential presidential bid, and a new poll of the state’s GOP primary voters voters doesn’t have good news for him.
The Suffolk University survey of 500 likely Republican voters in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation 2016 primary election found that Christie is tied for fifth place. Nineteen percent named Jeb Bush as their first choice, followed by 14 percent for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and 7 percent for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Donald Trump was the top pick of 6 percent, followed by Christie and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who are tied at 5 percent.
Read More >>One of Jeb Bush’s biggest challenges in the 2016 campaign will be to come up with a fresh economic plan that doesn’t make him seem like a tool of deep-pocketed Wall Street donors or the second coming of Mitt Romney, whose big, expensive tax cut plan failed to catch fire and left him wide open to populist attacks.
Read More >>As the 2016 presidential race officially opens, a lot of attention is being paid to the new faces in the crowded Republican field of candidates. There’s the first official entrant Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the fresh-faced Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and the libertarian-leaning Kentucky Senator Ron Paul. Another fresh face, Florida Senator Marco Rubio also looms as he too is expected to announce his candidacy soon.
Those four Republicans have all come on to the national scene since the 2010 elections. Three of them are in their forties, Paul is the oldest of the bunch at age 52, which means he’s just a pup as far as presidential politics goes. In a party that is desperately searching for an identity and a national leader, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that people seem most interested in these young and emerging Republicans.
However, there is another candidate that Iowans also seem to be interested in these days – former Texas Governor Rick Perry.
Read More >>A paradigm shift is needed in today’s Democratic Party.
Rising stars in the Democratic Party like Tim Kaine, Jim Webb and especially Martin O’Malley and Elizabeth Warren are all formidable candidates, despite the fact that one liberal icon has amassed $328,755,858 and owns her own server. If Republicans can be proud of the fact that Ted Cruz would “most likely” be able to serve as president, Democrats should trumpet the plethora of talent within their ranks.
Read More >>“It was sort of amazing, right?”
Gov. John Kasich beamed, basked, hammed. Whatever you’d call it, he’d had a great day back on the campaign trail.
“When I came here the last time, I couldn’t get anyone to pay attention, and now it’s, like, so totally different,” he told reporters. “You come to something like this and see how people react, and it’s pretty positive. It really does have an impact on the way you think.”
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