No tie, no apologies, no pulling punches: Scott Walker is 20TH to run for the White House and comes out swinging on Hillary, Obama, Iran, Russia and ISIS

  • Walker joins the fray with 14 other Republicans and five Democrats
  • Pitches Kohl's Department Stores as a volume-pricing example of how the US tax code should reach more workers with lower rates
  • Slams Obama for 'leading from behind,' being weak on Iran and Russia, and failing to be a friend to Israel
  • Pledges to repeal Obamacare and green-light the Keystone XL pipeline
  • Casual Walker wore no necktie and spoke with a lapel microphone – reciting a memorized speech without a teleprompter – and enters the race in 2nd place in polls

Wisconsin's Republican governor Scott Walker became the 20th major party candidate for president on Monday with a speech that name-checked Planned Parenthood, the ISIS terror army, Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin and the Kohl's chain of department stores.

The early GOP favorite has waited month after month to enter the race as others leaped in, but finally declared his availability for the White House in a suburb of Milwaukee.

Walker cast himself as the economic and military heir to Ronald Reagan, and a hardscrabble survivor with a statewide record that, he says, can scale up to the size of a nation.

'Since I've been governor, we took on the unions and won,' he said, referring to a sweeping reform of laws that govern public sector labor organizations – a move that drove unions to spend heavily in an unsuccessful effort to oust him.

'We reduced taxes by $2 billion and lowered taxes on individuals, employers and property,' Walker claimed.

'In fact, property taxes are lower today than they were in 2010. How many governors can say that?'

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LOVIN' IT: Scott Walker, Wisconsin's Republican governor, is the 20th major-party presidential candidate to join the race

LOVIN' IT: Scott Walker, Wisconsin's Republican governor, is the 20th major-party presidential candidate to join the race

HAMMER: Walker slammed Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for what he termed a weak foreign policy that makes America less safe

Walker's speech was full of red-meat for red states.

He boasted of presiding over conservative-minded regulatory and lawsuit reform. 'We defunded Planned Parenthood and enacted pro-life legislation,' he said.

The crowd went wild. 

'We passed Castle Doctrine and concealed carry,' two bedrock principles of the gun lobby. 

'And we now require a photo ID to vote.'

'If our reforms can work in a blue state like Wisconsin, they can work anywhere in America,' Walker insisted.

As with every other current or former governor vying for the ultimate brass ring in American politics, the gaping hole in Walker's resume is foreign policy.

TWEET: Walker announced his intentions Monday on Twitter, a few days after jumping the gun with an errant tweet his staff wasn't supposed to send 

TWEET: Walker announced his intentions Monday on Twitter, a few days after jumping the gun with an errant tweet his staff wasn't supposed to send 

But he teed up an aggressive stance on Monday, calling out President Barack Obama – and Democratic presidential front-running Hillary Clinton, who as his secretary of state for four years – as examples of trouble in search of crises to muck up.

Slamming Obama for coddling Vladimir Putin, he said the Russian leader 'bases his policies on Lenin's old principle: probe with bayonets. If you encounter mush, you push.' 

Walker's prepared text included a second line, which he omitted: 'If you encounter steel, stop.'

'With Obama and Clinton, Putin has encountered a whole lot of mush over the last few years,' he jabbed on stage. 'The United States needs a foreign policy that puts steel in front of our enemies.'

And in between pledging to repeal the Obamacare law, approve the Keystone pipeline and scrap plans for a Washington-driven set of 'Common Core' education standards, he heaped scorn on the current White House's approach to foreign policy.

'America is leading from behind and we're headed toward a disaster,' Walker said.

'We have a president who drew a line in the sand and allowed it to be crossed. A President who called ISIS the JV squad, Yemen a success story and Iran a place we can do business with.'

'Iran – think about that,' he said, referring to the Obama administration's current scramble to ink a nuclear agreement with the hyper-aggressive Islamic republic.

'Looking ahead, we need to terminate the bad deal with Iran on Day One, put in place crippling economic sanctions and convince our allies to do the same,' he declared.

GROUNDSWELL: Walker enters the race in 2nd place among Republicans in national polls, according to a recent average, trailing only Jeb Bush and with DOnald Trump nipping at his heels

GROUNDSWELL: Walker enters the race in 2nd place among Republicans in national polls, according to a recent average, trailing only Jeb Bush and with DOnald Trump nipping at his heels

'USA! USA! USA!' Walker's audience yelled their approval for a message about military might and economic stability

'USA! USA! USA!' Walker's audience yelled their approval for a message about military might and economic stability

And Walker became on Monday the latest in a parade of Republicans to cite 'Islamic terrorism' as the defining problem of the current generation, using a pattern of words that Obama and his top aides have been loathe to put in writing.

'Earlier this year, the president proclaimed that global warming – climate change – is the greatest threat to future generations,' he said. 'Well Mr. President, I respectfully disagree. The greatest threat to future generations is radical Islamic terrorism and we need to do something about it.'

'That means lifting the political restrictions on our military personnel in Iraq so they can help our Kurd and Sunni allies reclaim land taken by ISIS. On behalf of your children and mine, I'd rather take the fight to them than wait for them to bring the fight to us.'

THe crowd chanted 'USA!' USA! USA!' 

Democrats lashed out at the governor with a press conference in Wisconsin timed to scorch the earth before he spoke.

'Scott Walker rushed to enact the most extreme legislative record of any governor in the U.S.,' said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Martha Laning. 

'Scott Walker has tried to rip apart our higher education system. Scott Walker plans to sign a radical abortion measure into law. And Scott Walker has continued his complete disregard for Wisconsin’s workers, doing everything he can to make sure that the wealthiest stay on top and everyone else is left behind.'

And Richard Trumka, one of America's top union leaders as head of the AFL-CIO, issued a six-word press release.

'Scott Walker is a national disgrace,' it read in full. 

The popular chief executive, though, laid out an economic and tax policy that Democrats will loath, based on Reagan-era math as popularized by economist Art Laffer – who posited that growing the roster of taxpayers, rather than the tax rates Americans pay, is the surest way to national economic growth.

CASUAL MONDAY: Walker rolled up his shirtleeves – literally – and wore no necktie as he announced his plan to capture the world's most powerful political office 

CASUAL MONDAY: Walker rolled up his shirtleeves – literally – and wore no necktie as he announced his plan to capture the world's most powerful political office 

To make his point, he rebranded the famed 'Laffer curve' as the 'Kohl's curve,' citing the department store's volume-pricing strategy and layered discount coupons as a relatable analog.

'How does a company like Kohl's make money?' he asked. 'Volume. They make it off of volume.'

Shirt-shopping in his head, Walker said Kohl's 'could charge you $29.99 and a few of you could afford it – or they can lower the price and broaden the base and make more money off of volume.'

Then, the tax-policy denouement: 'The government could charge the higher rates and a few of you could afford it. Or we can lower the rates and broaden the base and increase the volume of people participating in our economy.'

Walker enters the race in second place among Republicans, according to an average of national polls compiled by Real Clear Politics.

With 9.8 per cent support among GOP voters, only former Florida governor Jeb Bush at 17.8 per cent polls higher. Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump is in third place with an average of 9.3 per cent support.

 

THE 2016 FIELD: WHO'S IN AND WHO'S THINKING IT OVER

A whopping 20 people from America's two major political parties have declared themselves candidates in the 2016 presidential election.

The field includes two women, an African-American and two Latinos. All but one in that group – Hillary Clinton – are Republicans. 

A few Democrats are still assessing their chances. And although the GOP field is deeper than ever, at least two more contenders could still join the race.

REPUBLICANS IN THE RACE  

Jeb Bush       Former Florida governor

Age: 62

Religion: Catholic

Base: Moderates 

Résumé: Former Florida governor and secretary of state. Former co-chair of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy.

Education: B.A. University of Texas at Austin.

Family: Married to Columba Bush (1974), with three adult children. Noelle Bush has made news with her struggle with drug addiction, and related arrests. George P. Bush was elected Texas land commissioner in 2014. Jeb's father George H.W. Bush was the 41st Presdient of the United States, and his brother George W. Bush was number 43.

Claim to fame: CJeb was an immensely popular governor with strong economic and jobs credentials. He is also one of just two GOP candidates who is fluent in Spanish.

Achilles heel: Bush has angered conservatives with hsi permissive positions on illegal immigration (saying some border-crossing is 'an act of love) and common-core education standards. His last name could also be a liability with voters who fear establishing a family dynasty in the White House. 


Chris Christie        New Jersey governor

Age: 52

Religion: Catholic

Base: Establishment-minded conservatives

Résumé: Governor of New Jersey. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Former Morris County freeholder and lobbyist.

Governor of New Jersey. Former U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. Former Morris County freeholder. Former statehouse lobbyist.

Education: B.A. University of Delaware, Newark, J.D. Seton Hall University.

Family: Married to Mary Pat Foster (1986) with four children.

Claim to fame: Pugnacious and unapologetic, Christie once told a heckler to 'sit down and shut up' and brings a brash style to everything he does. That includes the post-9/11 criminal prosecutions of terror suspects that made his reputation as a hard-charger.

Achilles heel: Christie is often accused of embracing an ego-driven and needlessly abrasive style. His administration continues to operate under a 'Bridgegate' cloud: At least two aides have been indicted in an alleged scheme to shut down lanes leading to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution for a mayor who refused to endorse the governor's re-election.

 

Carly Fiorina         Former CEO

Age: 60

Religion:      Episcopalian 

Base: Conservatives

                Résumé: Former CEO of Hewett-Packard. Former group president of Lucent Technologies. Onetime U.S. Senate candidate in California.

Education: B.A. Stanford University. UCLA School of Law (did not finish). M.B.A. University of Maryland. M.Sci. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Family: Married to Frank Fiorina (1985), with one adult step-daughter and another who is deceased. She has two step-grandchildren. Divorced from Todd Bartlem (1977-1984).

Claim to fame: Fiorina was the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company, something that could provide ammunition against the Democratic Party's drive to make Hillary Clinton the first female president. She is also the only woman in the 2016 GOP field, making her the one Republican who can't be accused of sexism.

Achilles heel: Fiorina's unceremonious firing by HP's board has led to questions about her management and leadership styles. And her only political experience has been a failed Senate bid in 2010 against Barbara Boxer.


Mike Huckabee     Former Arkansas governor

Age: 59

Religion: Southern Baptist 

Base: Evangelicals

Résumé: Former governor and lieutenant governor of Arkansas. Former Fox News Channel host. Ordained minister and author.

Education: B.A. Ouachita Baptist University. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (did not finish). 

Family: Married to Janet Huckabee (1974), with three adult children. Mrs. Huckabee is a survivor of spinal cancer.

Claim to fame: 'Huck' is a political veteran and has run for president before, winning the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 and finishing second for the GOP nomination behind John McCain. He's known as an affable Christian and succeeded in building a huge following on his weekend television program, in which he frequently sat in on the electric bass with country & western groups and other 'wholesome' musican entertainers.

Achilles heel: Huckabee may have a problem with female voters. He complained in 2014 about Obamacare's mandatory contraception coverage, saying Democrats want women to 'believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar.' He earned more scorn for hawking herbal supplements in infomercials as a diabetes cure, something he has yet to disavow despite disagreement from medical experts.


George Pataki      Former New York governor 

Age: 69 

ReligionCatholic

BaseCentrists              

Résumé: Former governor of New York. Former New York state senator and state assemblyman. Former mayor of Peekskill, NY.

Education: B.A. Yale University. J.D. Columbia Law School.

Family: Married to Libby Rowland (1973), with four adult children.

Claim to fame: Pataki was just the third Republican governor in New York's history, winning an improbable victory over three-term incumbent Mario Cuomo in 1994. He was known for being a rare tax-cutter in Albany and was also the sitting governor when the 9/11 terror attacks rocked New York CIty in 2001.

Achilles heel: While Pataki's liberal-leaning social agenda plays well in the Empire State, it won't win him any fans among the GOP's conservative base. He supports abortion rights and gay rights, and has advocated strongly in favor of government intervention to stop global warming, which right-wingers believe is overblown as a global threat.


Rand Paul      Kentucky senator

Age: 52

Religion: Presbyterian 

Base: Libertarians 

                  Résumé: US senator. Board-certified ophthalmologist. Former congressional campaign manager for his father Ron Paul.

Education: Baylor University (did not finish). M.D. Duke University School of Medicine.

Family: Married to Kelley Ashby (1990), with three sons. His father is a former Texas congressman who ran for president three times but never got close to grabbing the brass ring.

Claim to fame: Paul embraces positions that are at odds with most in the GOP, including an anti-interventionist foreign policy, reduced military spending, criminal drug sentencing reform for African-Americans and strict limits on government electronic surveillance – including a clampdown on the National Security Agency.

Achilles heel: Paul's politics are aligned with those of his father, whom mainstream GOPers saw as kooky. Both Pauls have advocated for a brand of libertarianism that forces government to stop domestic surveillance programs and limits foreign military interventions.


Rick Santorum     Former Penn. senator

Age: 57

Religion: Catholic

Base: Evangelicals 

 

Résumé: Former US senator and former member of the House of Representatives from Pennsylvania. Former lobbyist who represented World Wrestling Entertainment.

Education: B.A. Penn State University. M.B.A. University of Pittsburgh. J.D. Penn State University Dickinson School of Law.

Family: Married to Karen Santorum (1990), with seven living children. One baby was stillborn in 1996. Another, named Isabella, is a special needs child with a genetic disorder.

Claim to fame: Santorum won the 2012 Republican Iowa Caucuses by a nose. He won by visiting all of Iowa's 99 states in a pickup truck belonging to his state campaign director, a consultant who now worls for Donald Trump.

Achilles heel: As a young lobbyist, Santorum persuaded the federal government to exempt pro wrestling from regulations governing the use of anabolic steroids. And the stridently conservative politician has attracted strong opposition from gay rights groups. One gay columnist held a contest to redefine his name, buying the 'santorum.com' domain to advertise the winning entry – which is too vulgar to print.


Scott Walker     Wisconsin governor

Age: 47

Religion: Christian (nondenominational)

Base: Conservative activists  

Résumé: Governor of Wisconsin. Former Milwaukee County Executive. Former member of the Wisconsin State Assembly.

Education: Marquette University (did not finish)

Family: Married to Tonette Tarantino (1993), with two children. One of Mrs. Walker's cousins is openly lesbian and was married in 2014, with the Walkers attending the reception.

Claim to fame: Walker built his national fame on the twin planks of turning his state's past budget shortfalls into surpluses and beating back a labor-union-led drive to force him out of office through a recall election. Both results have broad appeal in the GOP.

Achilles heel: Wisconsin has suffered from a shaky economy during Walker's tenure, which makes him look weak compared with other governors who presided over more robust job-creation numbers. He promised to create 250,000 private sector jobs but delivered less than 60 per cent of them. Also, he led an effort in the state legislature to enact $800 million in tax cuts – putting the Badger State back on the road to government deficits.

Ben Carson       Retired Physician

Age: 63

Religion:              Seventh-day Adventist

Base: Evangelicals

            Résumé: Famous pediatric neurosurgeon, youngest person to head a major Johns Hopkins Hospital division. Founder of the Carson Scholars Fund, which awards scholarships to children of good character.

Education: B.A. Yale University. M.D. University of Michigan Medical School.

Family: Married to Candy Carson (1975), with three adult sons. The Carsons live in Maryland with Ben's elderly mother Sonya, who was a seminal influence on his life and development. 

Claim to fame: Carson spoke at a National Prayer Breakfast in 2013, railing against political correctness and condemned Obamacare – with President Obama sitting just a few feet away.

Achilles heel: Carson is inflexibly conservative, opposing gay marriage and once saying gay attachments formed in prison provided evidence that sexual orientation is a choice.


Ted Cruz            Texas senator

Age: 44

Religion:         Southern Baptist

Base: Tea partiers

                    Résumé: U.S. senator. Former Texas solicitor general. Former U.S. Supreme Court clerk. Former associate deputy attorney general under President George W. Bush.

Education: B.A. Princeton University. J.D. Harvard Law School.

Family: Married to Heidi Nelson Cruz (2001), with two young daughters. His father is a preacher and he has two half-sisters.

Claim to fame: Cruz spoke on the Senate floor for more than 21 hours in September 2013 to protest the inclusion of funding for Obamacare in a federal budget bill. (The bill moved forward as written.) He has called for the complete repeal of the medical insurance overhaul law, and also for a dismantling of the Internal Revenue Service. Cruz is also outspoken about border security.

Achilles heel: Cruz's father Rafael, a Texas preacher, is a tea party firebrand who has said gay marriage is a government conspiracy and called President Barack Obama a Marxist who should 'go back to Kenya.' Cruz himself also has a reputation as a take-no-prisoners Christian evangelical, which might play well in South Carolina but won't win him points in the other early primary states and couls cost him momentum if he should be the GOP's presidential nominee.

 

Lindsey Graham  South Carolina senator

Age: 59

Religion:        Southern Baptist

Base: Otherwise moderate war hawks 

Résumé: U.S. senator. Retired Air Force Reserves colonel. Former congressman. Former South Carolina state representative.

Education: B.A. University of South Carolina. J.D. University of South Carolina Law School.

Family: Never married. Raised his sister Darline after their parents died while he was a college student and she was 13.

Claim to fame: Graham is a hawk's hawk, arguing consistently for greater intervention in the Middle East, once arguing in favor of pre-emptive military strikes against Iran. His influence was credited for pushing President George W. Bush to institute the 2007 military 'surge' in Iraq.

Achilles heel: Some of his critics have taken to call him 'Grahamnesty,' citing his participating in a 2013 'gang of eight' strategy to approve an Obama-favored immigration bill. He has also aroused the ire of conservative Republicans by supporting global warming legislation and voting for some of the president's judicial nominees.


Bobby Jindal     Louisiana governor

Age: 44

Religion: Catholic

Base: Social conservatives

                  Résumé: Governor of Louisiana. Former congressman. Former Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services for Planning and Evaluation. Former Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals.

Education: B. Sci. Brown University. M.Litt. New College at Oxford University

Family: Married to Supriya Jolly (1997), with three children, each of whom has an Indian first name and an American middle name. Bobby Jindal's given name is Piyush.

Claim to fame: Jindal's main source of national attention has been his strident opposition to federal-level 'Common Core' education standards, which included a federal lawsuit that a judge dismissed in late March. He is also outspoken on the religious-freedom issues involved in mainstreaming gay marriage into the lives of American Christians.

Achilles heel: JindaDuring his first term as governor, Jindal signed a science education law that requires schools to present alternatives to the theory of evolution, including religious creationism. Similarly, his staunch defense of businesses that want to steer clear of providing services to same-sex couples at their weddings will win points among evangelicals but alienate much of the electorate.


Rick Perry        Former Texas governor 

Age: 65 

Religion: Christian (nondenominational)

Base: Conservatives 

Résumé: Former Texas governor, lieutenant governor, agriculture commissioner and state representative.

Education: B.Sci. Texas A&M University

Family: Married to Anita Thigpen (1982) with two afult children. His father was a former Democratic county commissioner in Texas.

Claim to fame: Perry boasts that while he was governor between the end of 2007 and the end of 2014, the Texas economy created 1.4 million new jobs while the rest of the U.S. lost close to 400,000. A Perry-led Texas also had the nation's highest high school graduation rate among Hispanics and African-Americans.

Achilles heel: Perry has a tough hill to climb after his 2012 presidential campaign spectacularly imploded with a single word – 'Oops' – after he couldn't remember one of his own talking points during a nationally televised debate. He also faces an indictment for alleged abuse of power in a case that Republicans contend is politically motivated and meritless.


Marco Rubio         Florida senator

Age: 43

Religion:          Catholic

Base: Conservatives


Résumé: US senator, former speaker of the Florida House of Representatives, former city commissioner of West Miami

Education: B.A. University of Florida. J.D. University of Miami School of Law.

Family: Married to Jeanette Dousdebes (1998), with two sons and two daughters. Jeanette is a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader who posed for the squad’s first swimsuit calendar. 

Claim to fame: Rubio's personal story as the son of Cuban emigres is a powerful narrative, and helped him win his Senate seat in 2010 against a well-funded governor whom he initially trailed by 20 points.

Achilles heel: Rubio was part of a bipartisan 'gang of eight' senators who crafted an Obama-approved immigration reform bill in 2013 which never became law – a move that angered conservative Republicans. And he was criticized in 2011 for publicly telling a version of his parents' flight from Cuba that turned out to appear embellished.


Donald Trump     Real estate developer

Age: 69

Religion: Catholic

Base: Presbyterian   

 

Résumé: Chairman of The Trump Organization. Fixture on the Forbes 400 list of the world's richest people. Star of 'Celebrity Apprentice.'

Education: B.Sci. Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Family: Married to Melania Trump (2005). Divorced from Ivana Trump and Marla Maples. Five grown children. Trump's father Fred Trump amassed a $400 million fortune developing real estate.

Claim to fame: Trump's niche in the 2016 campaign stems from his celebrity as a reality-show host and his enormous wealth – $8.7 billion, according to Trump. Because he can sef-fund an entire presidential campaign, he is seen as less beholden to donors than other candidates.

Achilles heel: Trump is a political neophyte who has toyed with running for president and for governor of New York, but shied away from taking the plunge until now. His billions have the potential to alienate large swaths of the electorate. And his Republican rivals are already labeling him an ego-driven celebrity and an electoral sideshow because of his past enthusiasm for anti-Obama 'birtherism.' 

 

 

REPUBLICANS IN THE HUNT 

Jim Gilmore, former Virginia governor

Gilmore is no political neophyte, having been Virginia's governor and attorney general. He would also bring military credentials through his service as an Army intelligence agent. He is also a board member of the National Rifle Association and presdient of the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative think tank.

John Kasich, Ohio governor

Kasich is a popular governor in the battleground Buckeye State, but has little name-recognition elsewhere. He has accommodated liberals on some issues and could be seen as a more palatable version of Jeb Bush for Republicans who fear electing a family dynasty. 

DEMOCRATS IN THE RACE 

Lincoln Chafee  Former Rhode Island governor

Age: 62

Religion:  Episcopalian

Base: Centrists

Résumé: Former Rhode Island governor. Former U.S. senator. Former city councilman and mayor of Warwick, RI.

Education: B.A. Brown University. Graduate, Montana State University horseshoeing school.

Family: Chafee is married to Stephanie Chafee (1990) with three children. Like him, his father John Chafee was a Rhode Island governor and US senator, but also served as Secretary of the Navy. Lincoln was appointed to his Senate seat when his father died in office.

Claim to fame: While Chafee was a Republican senator during the George W. Bush administration, he cast his party's only vote in 2002 against a resolution that authorized military action in Iraq. Hillary Clinton, also a senator then, voted in favor – giving him a point of comparison that he hopes to ride to victory.

Achilles heel: Chafee's lack of any significant party loyalty has turned allies into foes throughout his political career, and Democrats aren't sure he's entirely with them now. He was elected to the Senate as a Republican in 2000 but left the party and declared himself a political independent after losing a re-election bid in 2006. As an independent, he was elected governor in 2010. Now he's running for president as a Democrat.

 

Martin O'Malley    Former Maryland governor

Age: 52

Religion: Catholic

Base: Centrists 

                              Résumé: Former Maryland governor. Former city councilor and mayor of Baltimore, MD. Former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Education: B.A. Catholic University of America. J.D. University of Maryland.

Family: O'Malley is married to Katie Curran (1990) and they have four children. Curran is a district court judge in Baltimore. Her father is Maryland's attorney general. O'Malley's mother is a receptionists in the Capitol Hill office of Democratic Sen. Barbara Mikulski.

Claim to fame: O'Malley pushed for laws in Maryland legalizing same-sex marriage and giving illegal immigrants the right to pay reduced tuition rates at public universities. But he's best known for playing guitar and sung in a celtic band cammed 'O’Malley’s March.'

Achilles heel: O’Malley may struggle in the Democratic primary since he endorsed Hillary Clinton eight years ago. If he prevails, he will have to run far enough to her left to be an easy target for the GOP. He showed political weakness when his hand-picked successor lost the 2014 governor's race to a Republican. But most troubling is his link with Baltimore, whose 2016 race riots have made it a nuclear subject for politicians of all stripes.


Jim Webb    Former Virginia senator

Age: 69

Religion: Christian (nondenominational)

Base: War hawks and economic centrists

                              Résumé: Former U.S. senator from Virginia. Former U.S. Secretary of the Navy under Ronamd Reagan. Former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs.

Education: B.A. US Naval Academy (transferred from the University of Southern California). J.D. Georgetown University.

Family: Married to Hong Le Webb (2005). Divorced from Jo Ann Krukar (1981-2004). Divorced from Barbara Samorajczyk (1968–1979). 

Claim to fame: Webb is the rare Democrat who can bring both robust defense credentials and a history of genuine bipartisanship to the race. He served in Republican president Ronald Reagan's defense directorate as Navy secretary, and earned both the Navy Star and the Purple Heart in combat. Webb is also seen as a quiet scholar who has written more than a half-dozen historical novels and a critically acclaimed history of Scots-Irish U.S. immigrants.

Achilles heel: Webb has a reputation as a bit of a quitter. He resigned his Navy secretary post over a budget-cut dispute just 10 months after taking the job, and he dec;lined to run for re-election to the U.S. Senate in 2006. He also attracted bad press for defending the use of the Confederate flag as a heritage symbol for American southerners. Amid a nationwide clamor to remove the flag from the South Carolina statehouse grounds, he wrote that Americans should 'respect the complicated history of the Civil War. ... Honorable Americans fought on both sides.'

 

Hillary Clinton Former sec. of state

Age: 67

Religion: United Methodist 

Base: Liberals 

                            Résumé: Former secretary of state. Former U.S. senator from New York. Former U.S. first lady. Former Arkansas first lady. Former law school faculty, University of Arkansas Fayetteville.

Education: B.A. Wellesley College. J.D. Yale Law School.

Family: Clinton's husband Bill (1975) was the 42nd President of the United States. Their daughter Chelsea is married to investment banker Marc Mezvinsky, whose mother was a 1990s one-term Pennsylvania congresswoman.

Claim to fame: Clinton was the first US first lady with a postgraduate degree and presaged Obamacare with a failed attempt at health care reform in the 1990s.

Achilles heel: A long series of financial and ethical scandals has dogged Clinton, including recent allegations that her husband and their family foundation benefited financially from decisions she made as secretary of state. Her performance surrounding the 2012 terror attack on a State Department facility in Benghazi, Libya, has been catnip for conservative Republicans. And her presdiential campaign has been marked by an unwillingness to engage journalists, instead meeting with hand-picked groups of voters.

 

Bernie Sanders*  Vermont senator

Age: 73

Religion: Judaism

Base: Far-left progressives

                              Résumé: U.S. senator. Former U.S. congressman. Former mayor of Burlington, VT.

Education: B.A. University of Chicago.

Family: Sanders is married to Jane O’Meara Sanders (1988), a former president of Burlington College. They have one child and three more from Mrs. Sanders' previous marriage. His brother Larry is a Green Party politician in the UK and formerly served on the Oxfordshire County Council.

Claim to fame: Sanders is an unusually blunt, and unapologetic pol, happily promoting progressivism without hedging. He is also the longest-serving 'independent' member of Congress – neither Democrat nor Republican.

Achilles heel: Sanders describes himself as a 'democratic socialist.' At a time of huge GOP electoral gains, his far-left ideas don't poll well. He favors open borders, single-payer universal health insurance, and greater government control over media ownership.

* Sanders is running as a Democrat but has no party affiliation in the Senate.


DEMOCRATS IN THE HUNT 

Joe Biden, U.S. vice president

Biden would be a natural candidate as the White House's sitting second-banana, but his reputation as a one-man gaffe factory will keep Democrats from taking him seriously.

Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts senator

Warren is a populist liberal who could give Hillary Clinton headaches by challenging her from the left, but she has said she has no plans to run and is happy in the U.S. Senate.

 

 

 

 

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