It seems three tiers are emerging in the GOP

[euphemia]

Bump Jindal up one and Huckabee down one or two. The race will not happen with what you consider to be the top tier. It will be in the next tier (or category), and Jindal will be on everyone's short list for VP.

 

[SpiritOf1776_J4]

well, true about media constructs. From the point of view of the meanings of the actual words, Ron Paul is the actual mainstream candidate. The rest have nothing in common with normal people.

Then again, the gestapo act is called the patriot act.

 

[Sola_Fide]

The tiers can't be defined right now. Jeb is going to plummet. Walker may get some traction but he doesn't seem to have any new ideas....plus, he's too polarizing.

I've said ever since last year that the primaries are going to be the Rubio vs. Rand show. I still think I'm right about this. The establishment is going to coalesce around Rubio and the grassroots is going to coalesce around Rand. It is going to be a fight to the end, I think.

 

[sl7yz0r]

Quite a bit of Huckabee's Christian base have dropped him due to his outright support for common core

 

[anaconda]

When we had a "top tier" of Romney, Perry, and Bachmann, was it really a "top tier?" I'm looking for Jeb Bush to rather quickly turn into the Rick Perry of 2012 as the debates begin and comments to the media become scrutinized.

 

[acptulsa]

Poppycock.

These are more categories than tiers, and the ranking by electability is hogwash. And the categories stink too. If anything, they reflect media constructs. "Mainstream"? Give me a break.

Rand is just as mainstream and electable as Bush, and way more than Walker and Rubio. To list Rand 4th on this rank ordering by electability is just wrong - look at how he's been polling vs. Hillary.

You're talking to a prog. Their only hope in the general election is to convince the more gullible of the Republican primary voters that Rand Paul belongs in the same playpen as Cruz and Huckabee.

He, she or it considers this tripe 'strategic'.

 

[GunnyFreedom]

Quite a bit of Huckabee's Christian base have dropped him due to his outright support for common core

And they aren't really digging the Duggars either.

 

[Vanguard101]

Walker is neo-con, he wants boots on the ground to fight ISIS, and surely would support Paul Ryan trade scams. he might cut domestic spending, but that's useless if he spends more on imperial dreams

Wanting boots on the ground to fight ISIS does not inherently make you a neo-con. Let's not forget that Rand is hawkish on ISIS and wants war with them.

 

[thoughtomator]

meh, these are more "categories" than "tiers"

and if we're being honest, the political breakdown really looks like this:

Sons of Ron Paul: Rand Paul
Publicity Seekers: Trump, Fiorina, Carson
Establishment-owned Neocons: everyone else in the field

 

[acptulsa]

meh, these are more "categories" than "tiers"

and if we're being honest, the political breakdown really looks like this:

Sons of Ron Paul: Rand Paul
Publicity Seekers: Trump, Fiorina, Carson
Establishment-owned Neocons: everyone else in the field

You're right.

But I have my doubts about whether the OP came here to be honest. Seems to have come here to toss out a crumb of unwarranted arrogance and run away.

 

[JK/SEA]

Hilliary should be in Tier One.

 

[anaconda]

2012 should have made such a joke of "tiers" that the subject would be impossible to ever be taken seriously again without a major intellectual overhaul.

 

[anaconda]

2012 should have made such a joke of "tiers" that the subject would be impossible to ever be taken seriously again without a major intellectual overhaul.

There's A New Top Tier!!!!!...."

 

[Ronin Truth]

3 tiers is just the way that the charade usually plays out.

Oh, the drama. Oh, the pathos. Oh, the crock.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Real contenders - Rand, Bush, Rubio

Fake "conservative alternatives" - Cruz, Huckleberry, Walker

Establishment Shill Who Already Lost But Doesn't Know it - Christie

Publicity Candidates - Fiorina, Carson, Graham, Trump

----Sub-Set: Closet Homos - Graham

People the GOP Puts In To Give Air of Seriousness - Jindal, Kasich, ...other people so insignificant I forget their names...

 

[anaconda]

----Sub-Set: Closet Homos - Graham

Not sure about the closet part.

 

[anaconda]

People the GOP Puts In To Give Air of Seriousness - Jindal, Kasich, ...other people so insignificant I forget their names...

If all else fails for the establishment I think maybe Kasich could be bumped up front and center. He is the potential candidate that I feel most uncertain about.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Not sure about the closet part.

Clearly he's trying to conceal being a gay man by representing himself as a post-menopausal butch lesbian.

If all else fails for the establishment I think maybe Kasich could be bumped up front and center. He is the potential candidate that I feel most uncertain about.

If Bush has a brain aneurism while attempting to explain how he both is and isn't endorsing Gentle George's foreign policy, then they'll have to bring in Kasich or some other nonentity. All the better for us. Christie was their boy a year ago, but the Fattie fucked up and now it's Jeb. I don't think they have a serious back-up to the back-up.

 

[anaconda]

Clearly he's trying to conceal being a gay man by representing himself as a post-menopausal butch lesbian.



If Bush has a brain aneurism while attempting to explain how he both is and isn't endorsing Gentle George's foreign policy, then they'll have to bring in Kasich or some other nonentity. All the better for us. Christie was their boy a year ago, but the Fattie fucked up and now it's Jeb. I don't think they have a serious back-up to the back-up.

Part of my concern is that Kasich may, in fact, be magnitudes sharper than these other dufuses and could be an actual formidable establishment candidate. So much so that I think they are saving him for a later entry after market testing a few others. I think they have put their weaker characters up front and early. Being Governor of Ohio is a serious deal. This dude had his own show on Fox, I believe. I'm pretty sure Kasich could spin doughnuts around Richard Nixon, John McCain, or George W. Bush.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Part of my concern is that Kasich may, in fact, be magnitudes sharper than these other dufuses and could be an actual formidable establishment candidate. So much so that I think they are saving him for a later entry after market testing a few others. I think they have put their weaker characters up front and early. Being Governor of Ohio is a serious deal.

Very true. I just don't see them dropping Bush unless he really screws the pooch. He's got the name recondition and the machine, and Florida.

But I suppose I'd keep an eye on Kasich just in case Bush somehow goes down.