In April, outgoing Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said of the 2016 contenders, “I don’t really care [who wins the GOP nomination]. I think they’re all losers.” Yesterday, former President Bill Clinton had a decidedly different take on the 2016 GOP field, which did not veer into the puerile antics of Reid World. In fact, he said that the current crop running against his wife has “energy,” “youth,” and “diversity.” Moreover, these guys are not a bunch of “dummies” (via Mediaite):
On State of the Union Sunday morning, former President Bill Clinton told new host Jake Tapper that the 2016 GOP field, currently large enough to field a Major League baseball team, boasted diversity of talent but would struggle to narrow down an electable choice.“They’re impressive,” he said. “They’ve got a lot of youth, they’ve got a lot of energy, they’ve got some significant diversity and they’re no dummies.”
But Clinton added that the sheer number would be confusing to primary voters who wanted an electable candidate to complement the advantage the tea party had gained in the House of Representatives.
I’m not quite sure if it will be a confusing process for Republican voters, though that’s certainly a possibility. Frankly, primary voters will probably be more torn over which candidate they prefer to beat Hillary in the general, as most of them could work with the Tea Party in the House. Additionally, the fact that no Republican voter wants to see Clinton as the next president is a uniting factor with the party, whether they are Tea Party, moderate, or conservatiarian. Hopefully, that sentiment carries over into the various GOP presidential camps, as they maneuver around one another to clinch the nomination.
In the year of ‘anybody but Hillary,’ whoever can raise the money, get the key party players, and the momentum could nestle into an interesting position primary-wise. Campaigns will need around $75 million just to survive past the early voting states. While the filed is going to be big, I think we’ll see the un-serious characters drop off sooner rather than later.