Mirsky's List: Setting the Scene for NH Primary

I have used my space on Patch over the past several months to give you my views, and the views of my friends, neighbors, and relatives, on who is best, and who is the most likely to win, among the candidates for President in 2016. Since I have done this so many times, it seems only right to wrap it all up one last time before the New Hampshire Primary.

So here is my final pre-New Hampshire Primary list of the strongest, most viable candidates for President in #Election2016:

REPUBLICANS

1. Marco Rubio, U.S. Senator from Florida. Rubio has carved out the perfect slot for a Republican Presidential candidate: he has held some very conservative positions, has flip-flopped on immigration (for and against favoring the rights of presently illegal immigrants who have a moral and economic right to be here) so he can now take either side at his convenience, yet covers that all by presenting himself as a kind of new John Kennedy figure. There is a TV ad for Rubio where it appears that they have actually crafted Rubio’s profile to look like John F. Kennedy’s. Very clever indeed. On a reporting level, I have noticed that among all the Republican candidates, Rubio has the most charisma. That counts for something, even here in New Hampshire. Don’t place too much emphasis on how poorly Rubio may have done in last night’s GOP debate. I love politics but couldn’t even stand to watch another one of those things last night, so I doubt many real voters were paying attention.
2. John Kasich, Governor of Ohio. Kasich has done well here by remaining true to himself. Personally, I do not find him to be very impressive at all, because a lot of what he says is tired old news, and because his greatest claim to political experience is 18 years in the U.S. Congress (ugh!) but I believe Kasich has made the strongest case for himself as a Moderate Republican who would know how to do the job of being President if he got the chance.
3. Donald Trump, Real Estate Developer, Casino Owner. Donald Trump is completely repulsive, but he may be able to connect with people who are desperate for some new kind of economic reality. The problem with Trump is that he doesn’t even feel the need to behave in a civil manner when he is here in New Hampshire, a state where civility is held in the highest regard, trying to get people to vote for him, so how do you think he might behave with all the power that is given to the President of the United States. Also, Trump is clearly a racist, and has made numerous anti-Woman, anti-Minority statements that did not appear to me to just be tactical but in fact show his real face: Donald Trump is really not a nice guy.
4. Chris Christie, Governor of New Jersey. Chris Christie, a former U.S. Attorney, knows how to make his case verbally, and has done so quite formidably here in New Hampshire. Christie has gone everywhere in this state where real voters hang out, and he has answered every question that a Republican Primary voter might care to ask. I think Chris Christie could actually win the New Hampshire Primary.

ALSO READ:

• Mirsky’s List: Setting the Scene for NH Primary
• Mirsky’s List : Reporting on NH Primary, Iowa on Deck
• Mirsky: Shirley Chisholm and the 2016 NH Primary
• Mirsky’s List: Reporting on the Race for President
• Barack Obama: Let’s Be Reasonable on Gun Safety
• Mirsky’s List: Strongest Candidates for President: Canadians for Cruz
• Mirsky: Bill Clinton Speaks Out for Hillary in Exeter
• Mirsky: Uplifting Hillary Event in Portsmouth Church
• Mirsky: Ignore Trump at Your Peril

DEMOCRATS

1. Hillary Clinton, potential First Woman President, a former U.S. Secretary of State, a former U.S. Senator representing one of the largest states in the Union, New York, and a former two-term First Lady serving in the Bill Clinton Administration as not only the First Lady but as an experienced lawyer and advisor who promoted the most Progressive aspects of the Bill Clinton Presidency: universal health care coverage and gay rights. It will be a supreme insult to all women if a woman who has the best credentials, the strongest experience, is the most well-known and the most reliable, cannot win. Think about it.
2. Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont. Bernie Sanders has run a very clever campaign, portraying himself as the leader of a new cause when he has actually been working within the system all these years and he even voted to give Wall Street bankers derivative trading, their biggest tool to take control over our economy (and taking power away from the average person), which made it legal to sell stock where the underlying value of a financial instrument was not traceable by the normal average investor but could only be known by Wall Street insiders. So I am impressed by a man too old to actually function as our President in the digital age (he will be 75 this September) doing so well so far. But I don’t like what Bernie Sanders has done because it is not honest and it is not good for America.

And that’s all I have to say for now. I know I have left out a few people, but there were too many to begin with.