2016 Early Polling Continues to pit Clinton only against GOP potential candidates, Paul on Iraq – Yes his opinion can be stunning!

It appears that all pollsters continue to compare Hillary Clinton, and no other Dem candidate against the pack of 2016 potential candidates. In a situation where not one has officially announced a candidacy - but may have hinted – the best of those past races are generally put to the poll test. The pollsters have decided that must be Hillary Clinton only for the Democrats, and Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Huckabee and the 2nd place 2012 GOP candidate – Rick Santorum. In the latest round of Clinton vs. the GOP – she has lost some ground according to Forbes analysis, Clinton is still ahead but has lost ground in key demographics against both Jeb Bush and Rand Paul equally.

Here’s the conundrum – Clinton is likely to either bow out entirely in November, or be ambushed at the Democrat Convention again, by Obama-light – or the new Senator from Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren. Warren, despite protesting too much, has opened the door in recent interviews and is playing the role of 2014 candidate support, a potential sign of things to come. There is also the Governor of Maryland, who has made no bones about a 2016 run. The latter two are most likely to enter the fray.

On the Republican side, there is no telling who may emerge yet as a frontrunner – as the fortunes and the establishment hijacks, no unlike the national Democrats, will muck things up (See John McCain, Mitt Romney). Although Paul is the most likely to capture both the GOP nomination as well as the national title, it remains to be seen what machinations, if any, the GOP will mount against the son of former Congressman Ron Paul. The establishment GOP candidate is someone who is slightly less Democrat than a Progressive.

It is one thing to hold your ground and compromise while maintaining core principles (Clinton, William Jefferson, and Reagan, Ronald), and another thing when the debates are peppered with “I agree”’s from both candidates!

However, Rand Paul (KY) would most likely have the tables turned in such a debate given his issues are conservative, and at the same time, Libertarian, which allows him some leverage and more reasoned though processes. in an op-ed in the Salem, Oregon, Statemen’s Journal, there is absolutely hope in this letter that as a “Republican” (Paul) telling it like it is re: Iraq, blaming both Bush and Obama, if he will be able to take the “heat” from other Republican’s. It is likely as, in any contest that yes, there will be those incredulous naysayers who will insist that the Iraq war was a brilliant move, yet there are those who are more pragmatic and can honestly say – bad idea. Good for Paul, and doubtful that he will back down from that stance – even hotly contested. He will be battling (a la Ronald Reagan – who was almost kicked from the party), the left and the right of the political spectrum. Although so far, the left has flung only bad photographs and some trumped up plagiarism charge. Paul appears, so far, and this early, to be the best bet of those “who might run”.

On a side note: there has been so much to discuss recently that it is difficult to pick one topic at any given time – from the disaster on the US border where daily cries for help are heard from the local media, to the VA scandal to the IRS scandal to the horrific destruction of the middle east by ISIS, to so much more than one can comprehend in an hour – one debacle after another, makes one incapable of feeling nothing but sadness for the state this nation has been brought to under this administration. One does not necessarily blame the President, simply because he is pretty much a figurehead, and is surrounded by those who are acting on their own accord – yet, surely not this much junk could get by one CEO, or one governor, or one small businessman (say an eye doctor) – which begs the question, should we, as a nation, hire another academic for the highest office in the land?