Alphabet Soup: CPAC and ABC

The annual "let's vote for someone with the last name of Paul" straw poll has been taken at CPAC and - surprise - Rand Paul won!

Scott Walker, Ted Cruz, Dr. Ben Carson and The Other Bush rounded out the top five; some more prominent Republicans, including Chris Christie, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum, and Bobby Jindal, failed to garner much support; some of them got less than His Hairness, Donald Trump.

The CPAC poll is generally inconsequential, as indicated by the showing of the Paul family when push comes to shove.  Ron Paul won CPAC in 2010 and 2011, and Rand has won the last three, but you don't see them still standing when the fat lady sings.  CPAC voters trend young, with 47% of them between 18 - 25 years old.  The other findings from the poll?  Marijuana yes (41%); immigration no; reform should be at least 'encouragement' to leave if not outright deportation (64% combined), and on that issue, most believe that Congressional 'spending power' should be used to defund and derail the President's executive action.  As with the poll, no surprises there.

And there should be no surprise that CPAC was united in their disdain for Hilary Clinton, the presumptive Democrat nominee, The One For Whom All Others Will Wait (and likely Step Aside)

Ugh.  I'm sorry if my friends on the left will be unhappy with me, but I have got to get this off my chest:  I'm for ABC: Anybody But Clinton.

The Dems need to get out of their own way, and make room for someone who can run on their own record, someone who is not bringing with them a few airports full of baggage. Someone who can find a path forward, not backward.  We do not need a grandmother-in-chief, or at least, we don't need this particular grandmother in chief.

To quote Hillary herself, "what difference at this point does it make?" A lot. Democrats are already bearing the burden of having Hillary at the top of the heap, even undeclared. Her book deal, and her being flat broke, and Benghazi hearings, and her speeches, and on and on. That's all in the past, but the past is where the Clintons live, and where the Republicans are happy to go.

We've seem what passes for leadership in the Republican majority Congress; they can't even figure out how to fund the Department of Homeland Security, which is being held up because they're mad at President Obama for taking executive action on immigration. The Republicans, the party of shutting down the government, the party of threatening our security, the guys who claimed credit for the years-long improvement in the economy, because 'people were looking forward to them being in charge' -- seems their hubris knows no bounds.

Neither, however, does Hilary Clinton's. She sits, and watches, and toys around with reporters on making 'announcements' , and makes a bunch of well-compensated speeches here and there, and occupies media time and space and everyone else waits. And waits. And waits.

This ain't no way to run a railroad, Dems.

It's March.

Someone in the party needs to sit her down and let her know she has to make a move, and she has to do it now. She needs to announce her intention to get out of the way, or she needs to announce that she's running, so that other Democrats (maybe some of these, (but not the first)) can get moving towards the challenge of 2016.

Even if that challenge is taking on Hillary Clinton.