The Republican Presidential Candidates, Part 4: Cruz, Carson, Rubio, and Kasich

I had planned to write about the rest of the major 2016 Republican presidential candidates on an individual basis, but quite frankly, they aren't as interesting to me as the aforementioned Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, or Rand Paul.  Right now, it looks as if only Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, and Ben Carson (and maybe, just maybe John Kasich) are the only ones left to challenge opinion polls leader Donald Trump for the nomination. Of course, no one's actually VOTED yet, but Trump is so far ahead nationally that he will have to seriously stumble for anyone else to catch up with him.  Although maverick Texas senator Ted Cruz is solidly in second place, he has a tendency to antagonize the very party establishment he needs to court for their support...this tendency to make bellicose speeches on the Senate floor against his own leaders, ironically, has given me a much higher opinion of him than before.  Dr. Ben Carson, a renown pediatric neurosurgeon (retired now), seems at a loss in the political world...a phenomenon I've seen all too much in my lifetime where an individual shows great genius and accomplishment in one particular area but seems completely clueless in others.  Yet Carson...sadly like so many I know...seems to think that every word he says is profound wisdom.  It's really the same paradigm with Trump: Carson's a successful neurosurgeon, so believe him about everything because of that...Trump's a rich and successful businessman, so believe him about everything because of that.  Well, I don't on either account...

Which brings me to Floridian Marco Rubio, who rode to election in 2010 to the US Senate by allying himself to the Tea Party movement but now wants to be seen as a mainstream Republican leader.  The problem I see with Rubio, who is a very impressive speaker and has a youthful appearance and appeal, is his flip-flopping on issues...something that ended up hurting 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry in that year's general election.  Rubio actually co-wrote a Senate bill on immigration reform and then voted against his own bill when he drew flack from the right wing media's talking heads.  Still, Rubio would be a formidable opponent should he eventually get the nomination.  His being potentially the "first" Latino president would help to counter Hillary Clinton's appeal as the "first" woman president and possibly cut into the Democrats' large lead among that Hispanic demographic.  And the state of Florida, always a swing state in recent decades, would be more winnable with Rubio as the nominee...this is the same advantage that Ohio governor John Kasich would bring into the general election, as his state also is usually crucial to victory in November. Kasich, who comes across to me as constantly angry and disgusted at the stupid people around him, however, is low in the national polls despite doing well in New Hampshire...

At this point, it looks as if the Republican nomination is Donald Trump's to lose and he strikes me as being electable in the general election against (most likely) Hillary Clinton.  The only other candidate I see winning the presidency this time around is Rubio...Cruz is too ideological and Carson seems too...well, too confused...