Sunday, February 1, 2015

Despite Romney's exit, 2016 GOP field remains wide open - CBS News


Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney's announcement that he won't run for president in 2016 has done little to narrow the field of Republicans who have started down the path toward the GOP nomination.


On CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, former Secretary of State James Baker - who served under former President George H.W. Bush - said his former boss' son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is "an extraordinarily qualified person to be president."


"He knows politics. He was elected governor of Florida at least two times. He'll be a very good candidate. And I expect him to get the Republican nomination," Baker said



Asked if Bush was the frontrunner for the nomination, Baker said yes. But he added that it can be a perilous position.


"If you don't win big enough, then the press will say, "Woo-hoo, you didn't do well enough," he said.


If Bush wins the nomination and faces off against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, it would be the second Bush-Clinton campaign in which Baker might be involved. This time around, he sees "an excellent opportunity."


"It's hard to hold the White House for 12 years in a row. People, they want to see change. There's been a lot of problems that have accrued during this administration," he said. "I realize that she's way out in front on the Democratic side for that nomination. But she's vulnerable. She can be beaten."


One top Democrat sounded cautious, but confident, over Clinton's prospects.



"We can never take an election for granted," said Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, in a separate interview on "Face the Nation." "But if the economy continues to grow and stabilize as it has under President Obama, we'll be in a strong position to elect Secretary Clinton."


Durbin said that Clinton has been "carefully constructing her campaign" and that he's impressed by the people involved.


"She is going to avoid some mistakes of the past. And she's brought together the best and brightest in our party," he said. "I think we'll be unified if she announces her candidacy."



Other Republicans are certainly eager to face Clinton, including Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, who said in another interview on "Face the Nation" that he believes he is "the best qualified of anybody on our side of the aisle to offer an alternative to a failed foreign policy of Barack Obama."


Graham, who announced a political action committee last week to help him explore a presidential bid, could face accusations that he is insufficiently conservative because of his support for comprehensive immigration reform including a pathway to citizenship. He also voted for President Obama's two nominees to the Supreme Court.


"Well, I won in South Carolina. It's a pretty red state," Graham said.


"I'm for immigration reform, starting with securing the border. All Republicans agree with that. More legal immigration. You know, paying illegal immigrants under the table is a real threat to the middle class wage growth. That's one of the reasons we need to fix immigration," he said noting that his view is shared by "70 percent of the American people."


He also said he felt the two justices, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor, "were very qualified candidates to be picked by a Democratic president." Graham said that if he were president, he would nominate Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-South Carolina, to the Supreme Court, and expect Democrats to vote for him "because he's a very qualified person."


"I'm very comfortable that I'm in the mainstream of conservatism," he said.




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