The Republicans Presidential Candidates List: Best to Worst

As we are listening to REM's "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And, I Feel Fine)" on Simon-FM in Greensboro, NC, we start our list of the Republican candidates list from Best to Worst, which actually makes us soooo glad we are not Republicans here, though we wish Jim Gilmore, the former governor of our home state of Virginia well (he is currently dead last out of the 17 candidates)!

When he last attempted to run  for political office in the state against now Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Gilmore got about 35-percent of the vote.

Here is the list:

1. Sen. Lindsey Graham (SC, pict. top)

2. former Gov. George Pataki (NY, pict. center, he's getting less press than his fellow New Yorker)

3. Gov. Chris Christie (NJ, pict. bottom, he's a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen)

4. Carly Fiornia (Calif., former CEO executive)

5. Gov. John Kasich (Ohio)

6. Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida)

7. former Gov. Jim Gilmore (Va)

8. Sen. Rand Paul (Kentucky)

9. former Gov. Jeb Bush (Florida)

10. Ben Carson (Maryland, a former surgeon)

11. Gov. Scott Walker (Wisc.)

12. Gov. Bobby Jindal (La.)

13. former Sen. Rick Santorum (Pa)

14. Donald Trump (billionaire tycoon, yeah, you know who he is.......where is the Anacin?)

15. former Gov. Mike Huckabee (Ark.)

16. Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas)

17. former governor Rick Perry (Texas)

http://www.nocturnalguy38.blogpost.com

http://www.politico.com

http://www.thehill.com

http://www.rollcall.com

http://www.c-span.org

Democrats Who May Run for President in 2014: Hillary Plus Nine

There was a great cover for the center-left magazine "The New Republic" which showed Hillary Clinton is a room with 100 women who were wearing Elizabeth Warren masks. The presumed point the illustrator was making is that Hillary Clinton has two challenges, besides separating herself from husband Bill Clinton, that is: 1) rallying younger and more progressive voters to her political bid for the highest office and 2) maintaining the support of centrist or even conservative Democrats who could help Democrats maintain Virginia and Florida and possibly gain North Carolina and Georgia in 2016.

Here is our look at ten Democrats we feel may very well choose to run for president in the 2016 cycle; we should point out to folks that we are NOT Gwen Ifill, the veteran PBS politics reporter:

1) Hillary Clinton (New York,pictured top)

2) Sen. Mark Warner (Virginia, pictured middle)

3) Sen. Tim Kaine (Virginia)

4)  Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass., pictured bottom)

5) Gov. Martin O'Malley (Maryland)

6) Gov. Andrew Cuomo (New York)

7) Gov. Deval Patrick (Mass.)

8) Sen. Cory Booker (New Jersey)

9) Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (New York; she replaced Clinton in the Senate)

10) Vice President Joe Biden (Delaware)

http://www.pbs.org/weta/washingtonweek/

http://www.newrepublic.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/

Quote of the Day: The Dalai Lama

His Holiness the Dalia Lama of Tibet made an appearance on Capitol Hill this week, of all places, to offer the opening prayer for Congress. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va) was among those who had photographs taken with the most recognized Buddhist in the world.

The Dalai Lama also came to Washington, DC, as CPAC 2014, a gathering of arch conservatives like Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) were essentially giving rough drafts of would-be TED Talks focusing on how wimpy President Barack Obama has allegedly been with regards to Russian head of state Vladamir Putin regarding the hostile takeover of the Crimean Peninsula in the Black Sea coast of Ukraine.

Of course, many Republicans, such as Rudy Giuliani have professed admiration for Putin, which lead center-left political columnist E.J. Dionne of "The Washington Post" to suggest on NPR that Republicans are suffering from Putin Envy.

His Holiness was also in Washington, DC, when the Washington Capitals were playing vital home games. The Caps were able to put away the Phoenix Coyotes last night 3-2; we imagine very few people in Tibet or Bhutan watch pro hockey games.

Here is our quote from the Dalia Lama:

"The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred."

http://www.dalailama.com/

http://boulderzen.org/ (Boulder Zen Society in Boulder, Colo.)

http://www.politico.com/

http://thehill.com/

http://www.rollcall.com/

Pre-Election Day Tweets_Should Election Day Be a Holiday?

Before we begin, let's congratulate Marsha Line, the 2012 Cave Spring High School (Roanoke, Va.) homecoming queen; we presume that even though my home state is a swing state which reportedly the closest one in the country, along with perhaps Colorado, that neither President Barack Obama nor Mitt Romney has sought out her endorsement.

The 9th district of southwest Virginia has a fairly interesting Congressional race between Cong. Morgan Griffith (R), who is from Salem, Va., and his opponent Anthony Flaccavento, a successful organic farmer from Abingdon, Va., which is 2.5 hours from Salem and 7 hours from Washington, DC.

Coal has been one of the hot topics in the race in which Griffith is favored as coal miners, normally reliable Democratic voters, have been voting more Republican because of cultural issues and fears of environmental regulations, though climate change/global warming was the issue which made New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the most recognized political independent endorse Obama.

We have tweets from both candidates in this final round-up of Pre-Election Day tweets, taken from last night:

1) @Slate (Slate.com): "Latest polls show President Obama ahead of Mitt Romney in Ohio and Florida."

2) @CNNPolitics (CNN Politics): "Washington Redskins lose, San Francisco Giants win, election still unclear."

3) @lmcnelly (Lucas McNelly, a liberal activist): "I'm spending way too much time cursing at Republican attack ads."

4) @afor9th (Anthony Flaccavento, pictured bottom): "Thought telling truth and standing up for working people would rally folks. And it has. #Flaccavento in Wise County."

5) @MorganGriffith (Morgan Griffith, pictured top): "At the Dickenson County GOP Dinner. We've made over 40 stops and traveled more than 3,000 miles. Two days to go." (John McCain narrowly won the far southwestern Virginia county over Obama in 2008 according to "The Roanoke Times").

6) @CrowleyTime (Michael Crowley, a reporter for "Time" who previously worked for "The New Republic"): "Even weirder if Mark Warner hadn't bailed out in '08, Obama would likely be in the Senate or making first WH bid now." (Comment is in reference to Virginia's Democratic Senator Mark Warner).

7) @DavidFrum (David Frum, a center-right pundit and former George W. Bush speech writer): "Why isn't election day a national holiday?/Aka The Nightmare Before Christmas." (This is why we have a Charlie Brown Christmas tree image)

8) @NeilDiamond (Neil Diamond, the one and only iconic singer): "Working the phones for Obama. If I call you, don't hang up, it's me and I need you."

http://www.flaccaventoforthe9th.com

http://www.morgangriffithforcongress.com