I read in the paper last week there are 6 democrats and 5 republicans right now are thinking about running for office.

I like to see Obama take a shot at it but He needs to hold off and gain some experience in his current position as senator. hopefully by 2012, he'll get his chance. Right now, There's not a whole lot of choices as to who could be our next President.

I wish he'd come back to IL and be governor for a bit. (FIX THINGS OBAMA!) But I can see difficulty getting elected nationally after being governor in Illinois. We're a corrupt state that's ears deep in debt. He shouldn't associate himself with that.

He needs to be senator longer and continue to be a national name, travel the south, north, west, etc.

Theres a lot of people crowding the scene right now, but I think it comes down to...

GOP- President- McCain, Rudy, Romney, Tancredo (some support, not contention)
VP- Jeb, Sanford, Huckabee, who knows
My Pick: Romney/Jeb, but I'd prefer somebody else at VP

Dems- President- Clinton, Bayh, maybe Obama
VP- No telling.
I think the only democrat who could win the general is Evan Bayh, but he'd be a good VP pickup for Hillary.

Romney v. Clinton is really the ultimate in "douche vs. turd sandwich" decisions . . . puke

It would seem that the electorate would agree with you.

Recently, the road to the White House has been through Governor's Mansions for whatever reason.

Senators have not done too well.

That may be due to governors having to actually "run" something.

Or, it could just be a fluke, I suppose.

I hope Romney gets the nom, he'd be great.

Why don't you try having him for a governor before you go around singing the man's praises.

Maybe you or Collin can fill me in on your support for the guy a little bit - he's obviously incredibly bright, and his business background is impeccable, I have no doubts there. His background, however, is almost purely in organizational work and budgeting/forecasting - past 'balancing' the MA budget (which primarily came via cutting local funding for towns, plus a ridiculous accidental surplus in capital gains taxation), what has he really done?

I love the idea of giving each kid a laptop, but that wasn't really a tremendous success, and MA schools have actually suffered due to budget cuts that helped to push the budget into balance - I think MA is like 47th in the nation in school funding. The usual Repub platforms (vouchers, anti-gay marriage, pro-life) are fine and whatever, but some of these are kind of bizarre - he based his response to the MASC's ruling by claiming "Children have a right to a father and a mother," which blows me away.

While I'm very supportive of a return to conservative economic ideals and decreased central gov't and spending, does he really represent the best way to do this? Is this the only issue he really brings to the table?

Big surprise, Mass residents hate their GOP governor...

He's a great financial strategist, very inspirational/strong leader, strong record on traditional values, common sense ideas about immigration reform...Naturally we don't know much about his plans for foreign policy, but that will develop as we get further into the campaign.

Big surprise, a republican from the south who doesn't have to deal with this man's policies adores him.

What, like being against gay marriage? Yeah, its terrible. Trying to empower law enforcement to curb illegal immigration? Ridiculous. Thankfully, the rest of the country doesn't share your values, or lack thereof.

I could, of course, be wrong, but I'd be very surprised if he could get the GOP nomination.

Mystic, I think you might turn out to be wrong. We'll see. A lot of people feel he has more push and appeal than any other Republican. I talked to CT from the National Journal via email, and he said his money is on Romney at this point. A fraternity brother of mine within the RNC said that while he was with everyone in the last days of the Talent campaign, Romney was easily the candidate with the most buzz from within the party.

Oh whoops, I forgot that creationism is a totally acceptable thing to believe. Yeah, gay marriage is so wrong, there are only so many marriage licenses and if Teh Gays get them then how will straight people be able to get married in vegas only to divorce a day later? Gay people make a mockery of love I tell you!
God I'm so glad I don't live in the south.

That would be scary.

We live in his district. He's done a couple of "town hall" type meetings at our clubhouse. He shoots off his mouth just for the publicity.

This guy is an empty suit.

(ETA, I actually voted for the guy, though, because his opposition was so bad I don't even remember who it was.)