Pic Of The Moment: If This Is The Smartest Republican Running For President...

[SheilaT]

31. Thanks for your thoiughtful response.

Why do you suppose Hillary's declaration she's not really running yet is almost universally disbelieved, while so many race to point out that Elizabeth is not running must be taken as gospel truth?

Another thing that is mentioned frequently, but I don't think very many of us (myself included) is dealing with is the age issue.

Bernie Sanders was born in 1941, Joe Biden in 1942, Hillary Clinton in 1947, and Elizabeth Warren in 1949. I was born in 1948, so it's not as though I'm a twenty-five year old complaining about these old geezers. But it was widely understood back in 2008, that Joe Biden, in accepting the VP slot, would never run for President. He certainly didn't make any such public announcement, but part of that understanding was rooted in his age.

While I greatly admire Bernie Sanders, he's really too old, but if he does run, he has a chance of bringing a genuine conversation to the table of what we want this country to be. Unfortunately, in this country, those sorts of conversations never seem to have a lasting effect. In the end, the establishment, which grows more small c conservative and more insular all the time, closes ranks and doesn't let in any genuinely new people or ideas.

There actually is a younger generation out there, most of whom are largely unknown beyond a relatively small circle, and THAT'S a lot of what concerns me. I suppose at least some of the problem with all of this is that the Beltway Blowhards is that many of them are at least as old as the four Democrats I've named. And of course that they spend all of their time inside the Beltway and within their own very privileged class, which is another problem entirely.

I, for one, do sincerely hope Elizabeth Warren changes her mind, and that Hillary Clinton decides she should get off the stage.