An interesting side note, the President has been shutting down all talk of 2012, but he will likley go unchallenged in the primaries, beginning in just over a year.
On the other side, numerous players have been speculated on. The list includes
- Former Governor Sarah Palin - Alaska
- Former Governor Mitt Romney - Massachussets
- Governor Haley Barbour - Mississippi
- Former UN Ambassador John Bolton - Maryland
- Senator Scott Brown - Massachusetts
- Former Governor Jeb Bush - Florida
- Governor Chris Christie - New Jersey
- Senator John Coryn - Texas
- Governor Mitch Daniels - Indiana
- Senator Jim DeMint - South Carolina
- Former Speaker Newt Gingrich - Georgia
- Former NYC Mayor Rudy Guiliani - New York
- Former Governor Mike Huckabee - Arkansas
- Governor Bobby Jindal - Louisiana
- Former Governor Gary E. Johnston - New Mexico
- Governor Bob McDonnell - Virginia
- Representative Ron Paul - Texas
- Former Governor Tim Pawlenty - Minnesota
- Representative Mike Pence - Indiana
- Governor Rick Perry - Texas
- Senator Marco Rubio - Florida
- Former Senator Rick Santorum - Pennsylvania
- Senator John Thune - South Dakota
- Donald Trump - New York
Personally, I think the Republican primary will be a nasty race between Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Newt Gingrich, with a number of minor candidates. But the ultimate result, I think still leans towards President Obama. History has shown that incumbent Presidents are the hardest to defeat and if Obama can regain the energy of 2008, he will prevail.
I wouldn't discount DeMint, Pence or Perry, but there's no way that some of these people will get close (Rubio, Trump, Thune, Scott Brown, and Jindal).
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think a Bloomberg/Crist ticket would be interesting.