RE: 2016 talk.
You folks all seem to never mention one guy who I think WILL run for office.
And win.
Antonio Villaraigosa
41st Mayor of Los Angeles
2005-2013
63rd Speaker of the California Assembly
1998-2000
Majority Leader of the California Assembly
1996-1998
Member of the Los Angeles City Council
from the 14th district
2003-2005
Member of the California State Assembly
from the 45th district
1994-2000
Born Antonio Ramón Villar, Jr.
January 23, 1953 (age 59)
Boyle Heights, California, U.S.
Before being elected to public office, he was a labor organizer. He is the current president of the United States Conference of Mayors. He has also served as a national co-chairman of Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign and as a member of President Barack Obama's Transition Economic Advisory Board. He will serve as chair of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in September 2012.
Party leaders know he's their man.
So he has experience at all levels of government, including some pretty damn impressive executive experience....LA is no small potatoes.
You want a REAL boot strap story?
The kind of story Reagan had wet dreams about?
His father abandoned their family when Villaraigosa was 5 years old, and at age of 16, a benign tumor in his spinal column briefly paralyzed him from the waist down, curtailing his ability to play sports. His grades plummeted at Cathedral High School, and the next year, he was expelled from the Roman Catholic institution after getting into a fight after a football game.[4] He later graduated from Theodore Roosevelt High School[3] after taking adult education classes there at night, and with the help of his English teacher, Herman Katz.
Villaraigosa went on to attend East Los Angeles College,[5] and eventually transferred to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
I have tears in my eyes.
But wait, theres more.
Hes every democrats wet dream.
Transportation? Under his watch, he got a tax passed, in California, where passing taxes is fucking impossible.....and now there are FOUR (4!) light rail lines under construction.
Safety? "Villaraigosa is a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a national organization of Mayors whose goal is to increase gun control." I can see Bloomberg donating to this campaign.
...and so much more. Just read his wiki page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Villaraigosa
Oh right, and hes of mexican background.
You want Texas blue in 2016? He's your man.