MARCO vs. SCOTT – AT 9:31 A.M. ET:    It's really too early to make definitive statements, but there are signs that the race for the GOP presidential nomination may well come down to a battle between Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, two fine candidates.  From The Politico: 

ANKENY, Iowa— Republican insiders in early-voting states say a crucial battle is emerging in the 2016 presidential race between Marco Rubio and Scott Walker, competing to establish themselves as the party’s “bridge” candidate who can appeal to both the establishment and grass-roots activists.

As it has become increasingly apparent that they are key rivals, the men have started taking regular, subtle but unmistakable, shots at one another. Walker talks about the need to nominate someone who is not from Washington and implicitly compares Rubio to Barack Obama. Rubio suggests that there is “no way” a governor like Walker is prepared to deal with global crises facing the United States.

Dozens of interviews on the ground in the early states, backed up by recent polling, find many Republicans torn between Walker and Rubio.

A Public Policy Polling survey this week shows Walker and Rubio in first and second place in Iowa. “The key to Walker’s success is that he’s winning both among voters who are most concerned about electability in the general election and among voters who are most concerned with having the most conservative candidate,” the Democratic firm said in a release explaining the numbers. Rubio and Walker tied in the poll for being the most frequent second choice of voters.

COMMENT:  Jeb Bush is also in the running, and John Kasich is getting ready to take the plunge.  We have a good field. 

Compare please to what used to be the party of Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy.  They have:  one zillionaire corruptionist who won't explain her finances; a shrieking senator from Massachusetts who can't get her "native American" background straight; a former governor of Maryland who just got booed on the streets of Baltimore over his failures; and a 75-year-old socialist from Vermont. 

Great slate...if this were Russia.

May 1, 2015