US Presidential Election 2016: Place Your Bets!

That, and because of his uncanny similarity to Kenneth the Page:

When I think of who will run or get nominated, I look at who wowed their party with a great speech at the national convention. Worked for Bill Clinton, worked for Obama. Coming out of the DNC the two names I heard most were Deval Patrick -- already mentioned in this thread -- and the mayor of San Antonio, Julian Castro.

That said, I don't know if jumping from mayor to president is feasible. That probably also impacts, say, Antonio Villaraigosa, the mayor of Los Angeles, who's been all over the national news.

Christie is too heterodox on key issues and the only way to handle that in a Republican primary is contrition, which he doesn't do. I'd say the hurricane stuff is just the most recent example of him not giving a shit about the party line.

I'm pretty sure the shrieking white-hot sphere of pure rage is the safe bet. I'm not entirely convinced about that analysis' veep prediction, though. I think the sphere will appreciate Bachmann's tenacity in close fights, and doesn't need the dark cloud.

How bout Sebelius?

Biden being the nominee would be hilarious, at least as VP all his verbal gaffes arent front and center like they would be as a presidential candidate.

No way Biden will even consider it. I'm pretty sure he's said as much.

Discounting Bachmann and Palin as too extreme and/or already electorally discredited, surely both parties will be seeking women to run in abundance. Arguably women were a greater demographic story this election than Latinos, and the "first female president" thing is not an advantage to be casually squandered.

Christie is too liberal. Paul's followers scare old people. Rubio, sure, why not. West lost to a newbie liberal in Florida(!), and is too uppity for the base. Santorum is religiously crazy enough and can sound superficially sane (to conservatives). Santorum/Rubio in 2016 for the Reps.

Biden is unpredictable and quirky. Cuomo, maybe, but can he avoid foot-in-mouth disease? Villaraigosa has potential, but is largely unknown. ?/? in 2016 for the Dems.

I would vote for Biden so hard, but I have to imagine he won't even try. Dude is getting up there.

I would totally be cool with declaring him VP for life, though.

The more I think about it, the easier it gets to imagine the Republican primary coming down to Paul Ryan vs Marco Rubio, with Ryan getting the nod because he's paid his dues as VP candidate.

Biden vs. Christie would be the most entertaining presidential race in the history of our nation.

They really should get in touch with Mitt Romney. I hear he has entire binders full of qualified women.

Marco Rubio vs Cory Booker would be the awesomest presidential campaign ever. It would have fangirls, entire tumblrs dedicated to "putting the bi back in bipartisan", posters in Tiger Beat...

Biden is going to be too old, he'll retire. I think we're probably a couple terms away from the inevitable Gavin Newsom primary loss. Then again I thought Obama was too new/young (hadn't even finished a full senate term) so maybe he or Booker will jump in. There's no way Newsom makes it out of a primary but I think Booker has a chance. Elizabeth Warren could follow the exact Obama path, I guess?

I want to see Alan Grayson run. He'd never get through the primaries, but it would be entertaining as hell.

I dont see warren going anywhere, NE liberals dont exactly have a good track record running for president.

True. Look at Romney.

Santorum being the nominee for the GOP is a sure way to keep the WH in Democrat control.

It's partially why I wasn't displeased Romney won the nomination (Santorum, Bachmann and Perry all are worse), but man... he was just a big old bucket of wishywashy.

I'd like to see Julian Castro run, based off his speech at the Democratic Convention, but he's gonna need some experience at higher "levels" of office before he's a viable national candidate.

My money is definitely on Hickenlooper to make a serious bid. It seems to me like he's been trying to position himself for a while. I'd be surprised if Clinton puts her hat back in the ring.

I'd also expect both Rubio and Christie to try.

I thought this was a goofy nickname, but nope, actual name. I just can't see someone named Hickenlooper as president.

As for Antonia Villaraigosa as a Democratic prospect, after having living under his mayorship for several years I can quite vigorously say that contemplating him as a nominee leaves me... underwhelmed. He's not done a bad job per se, but neither has he done anything I would consider particularly worthy, either in terms of policy or electability. He's relatively young, somewhat charismatic and Hispanic but other than that in all ways IMO a generic "Democratic Machine" candidate. I mean, I'd vote for him over pretty much any Republican these days, but I'd hope the Dems could field a much better candidate.

the president's name is Barack Hussein Obama, a trifecta of odd names. The GOP candidate was named Willard with Mitt as a nickname. Pretty sure he'll be ok.

Yeah, I would expect to see him try for a statewide office before running for the Presidency. When was the last time either party nominated someone who hadn't been a governor, senator, or vice president before? Probably Eisenhower, but he's a pretty special case. Granted, the city of LA has a larger population than the 20 smallest states, so you could argue that being mayor there is a bigger job than being governor of (say) Arkansas. But there's a pretty traditional path to the nomination, and Villaraigosa isn't on it yet. Among possible candidates from California, we're likely to see Gavin Newsom try first (assuming he tries to move up from Lt. Governor, which seems a given), and he's not much to get excited about either.

I predict the Dems will push for more of the same with a Biden/H. Clinton ticket, and the GOP will double down on the crazy and run Palin/Limbaugh

Biden could give anyone on the repub side a contest for title of craziest person running.

Dude, what is UP with the Biden hate? It's like you can sense his name being mentioned and rush to say something negative.

He is an idiot who says idiotic things all the time.

So you're worried that he's stealing all your thunder?

I'm so confused

Like what?

Lets see, calling the capture of Bin Laden the most audacious plan in the past 500 years. Referring to the president as president clinton days before Obamas second election.

How about this one.

I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that's a storybook, man." –Joe Biden, referring to Barack Obama at the beginning of the 2008 Democratic primary campaign, Jan. 31, 2007

This entire web page.

http://politicalhumor.about.com/od/joebiden/a/bidenisms.htm

Three FOUR Biden rips in one page, go Brett! Someday, someone will care!

Biden's smarter than you on his worst days hung over from brew & blo parties. You'll accomplish approximately 0.0026% of what he has in his life and say more stupid shit while doing it. Congratulations.

I love the chyron right at the end, “Hillary Clinton announces she has ‘not ruled out’ 2016 run. Orb instantly quadruples in size.”

Like at the 2012 vice-presidential debate where he bumbled his way through and was made to appear an utter clown by a shrewd and witty Paul Ryan.

Oh, no, wait.

Biden utterly destroyed every point Ryan made and demonstrated himself to be a brilliant verbal tactician as well as a fantastic representative for the United States on the national stage.

So one decent night excuses all the idiotic and racist things he has said in the past?

Biden is a great person and almost as good a politician, he has my vote whenever he needs it.

His words show him to be a racist, I wouldn't call that a great person.

Pretty damn racist things to say.

All it takes is one fantastic showing to demonstrate a man's potential.

My dad, a lifelong Republican who voted Gary Johnson this year due to a distaste with Romney and Ryan, often bemoans 'Where is the modern day Truman?' After seeing Biden in the debates he said 'oh, he's been riding Amtrak this whole time'.

Does he have a big mouth which he habitually shoots off? Yeah, he kinda does. I'll still take him on the world stage over our last two Republican presidents, one of which famously yakked in the lap of the Japanese prime minister and the other of which took us from a moment in which most of the world was genuinely on our side to America's worst reputation worldwide in a hundred years. Given how savvy Biden demonstrated himself to be in that debate, how smart he's proven himself to be time and time again despite the overblown tendency toward gaffes, I have no problem seeing him as a truly excellent representative for America's brand to countries around the world. There's a reason people just kept asking him to be the chairman of the senate committee on foreign relations. The man has been the senator from Delaware for longer than I've been alive. He's been fighting for the American people in Washington DC for nearly forty years. In the past two years Biden has time and time again acted as Obama's right hand in reaching out to one of the most divisive Republican controlled houses in recent memory to get laws passed on behalf of Americans.

So you want to call Joe Biden idiotic? Fine by me. You're just letting us know something about you.

Though let's be honest, it's nothing we didn't know.