Cruz.
Paul.
Rubio.
Carson.
Fiorina.
Huckabee.
Santorum.
Pataki.
Graham.
Now Republican Governor of Texas Rick Perry has officially entered the race to be your next President of the United States of America.*
The Right Scoop has several live streams of the announcement on its site right now.
The always objective PolitiFact couldn’t wait to pounce on Governor Perry with a PANTS ON FIRE!!!!!!11111 declaration…
Rick Perry in '14 said illegal immigrants committed 3,000 homicides over past 6 years. PANTS ON FIRE: http://t.co/trLB3KwBuh #2016Election
— PolitiFact Texas (@PolitiFactTexas) June 4, 2015
…and a Daily Beast writer creatively lifts from the relevant Britney Spears…
Rick Perry's announcement video is edited sort of like Johnny Cash's "Hurt" http://t.co/BbLTvQTQKQ
— Olivia Nuzzi (@Olivianuzzi) June 4, 2015
…and ThinkProgress wants you to think proggy-like when considering the governor of a state with a GDP comparable to Australia’s…
Five things to know about presidential candidate Rick Perry http://t.co/VgZBS0zCnG pic.twitter.com/YKQdcSET4j
— ThinkProgress (@thinkprogress) June 4, 2015
…while even Vox’s Matt Yglesias managed to say something not so bad about him…
Rick Perry's record of job creation is genuinely impressive http://t.co/UNMBSSop7P pic.twitter.com/DWQRHYRCh8
— Matt Yglesias (@mattyglesias) June 4, 2015
So which Republican candidate will get the most support from the party establishment?
Which one has the best. most realistic chance of defeating whichever Democratic candidate gets the nomination?
Are any of these candidates worthy of the seat in the Oval Office? And I don’t just mean which one is better than Obama. I mean, who is the most worthy and most qualified to be the next leader of the free(ish) world?
As for me, it’s way, way, way too early to decide who I can most tolerate winning the nomination. I’m pretty jaded by the whole process. Anything can happen in the next…yikes…less than a year and a half. But others might already know who they want.
So discuss.
* There are a couple of other candidates running on the Republican ticket–Mark Everson and Jack Fellure–but they are still relegated to asterisks at this point. (Sorry, fellas, but it’s true.)
