i thought Cruz's speech was really well done for the most part but i agree that he's probably going nowhere. i can't see him getting serious donor support and i think he would have next to no chance of winning a general election.

You know Liberty University forced all of its students to attend.

It should be interesting to see how much birther crap Cruz gets... Considering the amount of crap Obama got about it, and he was actually born in the country...

Yeah... Technically there are several people that have said they are running, but Cruz is the first credible candidate (even though it is still very unlikely that he gets the nomination).  Gary Johnson can run again if he wants, but he will always be 1% candidate...

edit:  however, I will cover third parties after they get their official nomination.  This thread is basically in primary mode and third parties don't really have primaries.

I'm canadian, so I really don't know much about American politics.

none...  he is white and a rep.

To the surprise of no one, Rand Paul is running! I'm guessing he is the candidate the plurality of this forum will support?

I did enjoy his speech, except for the military funding and neo-con pandering, but I realize if he didn't then, even if he did win the primary, the neocons would support Hillary, as they are two of a kind.

he didn't seem to be a very good speaker to me but boy i think it is going to be hard for me to find any other candidate in this election that i politically support as much as Rand.

unfortunately i think it's very unlikely he'll receive the nomination.

In the Republican field I would guess he will garner the greatest youth support as millenial conservatives seem to favor the libertarian view more than prior generations.  I think Paul's struggle is being himself while winning primaries with the base voting.  He has already adjusted or weakened many stances in the lead up tot his announcement for political reasons. He wanted to cut defense spending and now he wants to ramp it up because for some reason that wins political points with parts of the electorate.

My guess is Rand will stick it out through South Carolina, but without the backing of major donors that favor safer candidates he will struggle and kept afloat by grass roots campaign.  After finishing 2nd-4th in each of the first three states he will drop out.