Will the Republicans nominate Caitlin Jenner?

Mark Steyn notes that Bruce Caitlin Jenner is way hotter than Hillary.

Caitlyn's emergence from her second closet - coming out as a Republican - seems to have been forgiven by all the showbiz gals.

I was amused to see that the annual "V Day" production [of The Vagina Monologues] at Mount Holyoke College has been canceled because of its "extremely narrow perspective on what it means to be a woman". Hence, this Guardian headline: "Vagina Monologues playwright: 'It never said a woman is someone with a vagina'..." The revolution devours its own: Less than 20 years after Eve Ensler "empowered" women by "reclaiming" their vaginas, it seems a woman doesn't need a vagina at all, and it's totally cisgenderist to suggest you're not a woman if you're hung like a horse.

Read more here.

How a mushy moderate may win the GOP nomination

Thomas Sowell warns,

While there are a number of Republican candidates who can point to substantial accomplishments as governors, the fact that most have strong track records as conservatives means that they may well split the conservative vote so many ways in the primaries as to let the nomination go by default to a mushy moderate — of the sort beloved by the Republican establishment, but not by enough voters to beat even a weak or troubled Democrat on Election Day.

Read more here.

How strong is the GOP bench?

For months now I have been reading many conservative pundits who say the GOP has a "much stronger bench" this time, as compared to 2012. In 2012 I liked Gingrich, and Guiliani. Well, now there is finally a pundit who is having second thoughts about the strength of the GOP candidates. Roger L. Simon expresses his concerns here.

Doing the math needed for a GOP win in 2016

Dick Morris does some math in today's video, pointing out that the GOP must nominate a candidate who can win the states Romney won, plus Florida, Ohio, and Virginia. But wait, you're still not there. You need to pick up Colorado, Wisconsin, Nevada, Iowa, Pennsylvania or New Hampshire to get to the magic number of electoral votes. Morris gives special attention to Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz as candidates who could possibly win those states. Watch his video here.

"Mitt choked"

Comparing Mitt Romney to a golfer who chokes on a three foot putt, Donald Trump told Iowans today that Republicans cannot make the mistake of nominating Romney or Jeb Bush, whom Trump described as being terribly weak on immigration and a Common Core advocate. Go here to read more and listen to the Donald blast Bush and Romney.

Sarah is seriously interested

Sarah Palin speaking at a trade show this week in Las Vegas. (John Locher/AP)

Guess who else showed up in Iowa today? And guess who else said she was seriously interested in running for president? Can you dig Sarah versus Hillary? Final male vote: 96% for Sarah, 4% for Hillary.

Scott Walker wows conservatives in Iowa

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker showed some fire as he addressed Iowa conservatives today, reports Cameron Joseph of The Hill.

The Wisconsin governor, in rolled-up shirtsleeves, paced the stage as he blasted big government and touted a long list of conservative reforms he's pushed through in blue Wisconsin.

The governor also showed a rhetorical flourish that's largely been absent from his previous campaigns, drawing the crowd to its feet multiple times.

"There's a reason we take a day off to celebrate the 4th of July and not the 15th of April," he said, almost yelling as his voice grew hoarse. "Because in America we value our independence from the government, not our dependence on it."

Walker's speech had something for every element of the activist crowd. The governor touted his three victories over Democrats and recall win as well as his state-level education reforms. Each new policy he helped pass drew cheers: Voter ID laws, education reforms, tax cuts and defunding Planned Parenthood.

The biggest question for Walker as he ramps up for a race is whether he has the fire in the belly and political skills to stand onstage against the other candidates. And in his first major Iowa address, he may have done a lot to dispel notions that he lacks charisma.

When he said he won reelection as Milwaukee County Executive in an area where President Obama won by a two-to-one margin, some in the audience gasped.

"If you get the job done the voters will actually stand up with you," he said before contrasting his record with Washington's deadlock.

The preacher's son also showed a personal side — and spoke in religious terms to thank Iowans who prayed for him as he faced death threats during his fight against the public sector unions, including one that promised to gut his wife "like a deer."

Walker made sure to establish his Iowa roots — saying he'd lived there until third grade until his father got a job as a minister in Wisconsin — before promising to return "many more times in the future."

Scott Walker

Scott Walker has hired Rick Wiley who is

A former Republican National Committee executive director, Wiley has deep ties in many early voting states and worked in both Iowa and New Hampshire in the 2014 cycle.

Read more here and here.

Walker said:

"I very much believe that our next president should be a governor," he said. "And I think you look at the mess in Washington, and you realize we need leaders from outside of our nation’s capital, and we need people who have been successful."

Asked when he will make a decision, Walker said, "I think any candidate that’s going to be serious, by mid-year in 2015, has to be in the race."

Will Ted Cruz need 24-7 Secret Service protection?

The place to go for political junkies

Open Blogger has written two of the most comprehensive posts I have seen yet on the potential GOP candidates for president in 2016 here.