[Hoot Gibson]

^^Run has a point about the candidates that the Dems have staged to follow up Hillary Clinton. There are a lot of cookie-cutter liberal zombies in the wings, but no charismatics. As I have said in the past, Republicans tend to stay to the right, at least to some degree. And that gives them the edge in my book. But, they have a revolting tendency to veer left especially on social issues, as was demonstrated in the post election loss of 2012. I heard many of them blubbering about the need to move to the left. Given that errant example regarding their perception of the mindset of the voter, one wonders whether in spite of their sweep, the lessons of the 2014 midterms have totally escaped them.

Traditional American values are a way of life. Not some stack of planks that may be culled or included in their political platform for whims of light and transient causes. I really wish they would wake up to that fact. That is their Achilles heel. Dems proclaim their wide eyed liberalism openly and unashamedly. Republicans on the other hand, seem to waiver or demagogue a bit when confronted about what they stand for. Hence the fence sitting products of the mushy middle that GOP power brokers keep running. Just spit it out and quit fence riding and see what happens. After all, it isn't like they have a lock on the Presidency right now.

I would love to see Ted Cruz as President. The problem with him is not his politics. It is the number of voters he identifies with. Even among Republicans, many take him the wrong way. I mean, talk about irony. Dems managed to hang the so-called government shut down on Cruze while dodging their own responsibility in the matter. I would gladly accept a Kasich as well.

I agree with most of what you and RIUTG said above, but let me point out a couple of things. First, five years before Obama was nominated by the Democrats, nobody could have imagined that he would have been the nominee in 2008. He had given one good speech in 2004 at the Democrats' convention and had less than two years experience in the U.S. Senate before he decided to run for president. If Democrats could get a totally unqualified candidate such as Obama nominated, then there is plenty of time for them to find another incompetent nominee who can read a teleprompter.

My second point is that it was not the Democrats who tagged Cruz with the blame for the government shutdown, it was the Republican establishment. All of the usual suspects helped make Cruz the scapegoat and they continue to lie about the political damage that the shutdown did to the party. Karl Rove, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Michael Steele,...the list goes on and on of Republican moderates who disparaged Cruz for doing the right thing.

Sure, Democrats were happy to play along, but the GOP party "leaders" are the ones who stabbed Cruz in the back. IMO, they did so because they agree with much of Obama's agenda or lack the political courage to oppose it in any meaningful way.