There are 17 good reasons why Democrates are looking forward to 2016.

Reason 1: John Bolton

Former United Nations Ambassador Bolton wasn't included in the Iowa poll of potential Republican candidates released last week by the Des Moines Register, but that hasn't stopped some far-right crazies from touting a guy who recently criticized Fox News for "backing down" after it was forced to acknowledge its ludicrous claim that France and England both have no-go zones, where only Muslims are allowed to enter was fraudulent.

Reason 2: Jeb Bush

His father couldn't remember dozens of meetings on Iran Contra; his brother couldn't remember why he ducked out of the last year of his National Guard obligation; and he couldn't remember bullying younger and smaller kids while in prep school.

The tradition continues.

Reason 3: Ben Carson

The winner of this year's Herman Cain/Allen West Award as the minority the Republican's love until "the rest of the story" emerges, Carson thinks it's a swell idea to open all public land, including national parks, to oil and gas drilling.

Oh, yeah, and he also thinks Obamacare is the worst thing since slavery.

Hasn't anyone ever explained to him what slavery was all about?

* Reason 4: Chris Christie
You know you aren't going to win when you fall off a chair, say vaccination's for measles ought to be a parental choice, and are called a bully by no less than potential foe Rand Paul.

* Reason 5: Ted Cruz
He believes "our rights are from God, not the government.

No, Ted, our rights don't come from either God or the government. Our rights derive from the U.S. Constitution and its 27 amendments.

Reason 6: Carly Fiorina

Once ranked as "one of the worst CEOs of all time," it was discovered during her failed bid to become the U.S. senator from California that this former head of Hewlett-Packard had failed to vote in multiple national and local elections in the past.

Her campaign theme (echoed by Bolton, Carson and Donald Trump): Why not start at the top?

Reason 7: Lindsey Graham

Still thinks we can win in Afghanistan and in Iraq if we give them a little more time and a lot more money.

Wrong.

Reason 8: Mike Huckabee

While he genuinely cares about the poor, it's tough to win when you compare being gay to drinking and smoking, and then find yourself being lectured by female Fox anchor Megyn Kelly that "not only do we (the women on Fox) swear, but we drink, smoke, and have premarital sex using birth control."

Reason 9: Bobby Jindal

Another no-go zone myth guy, Jindal could have been the future of the Republican Party.

Now he's just the guy who allowed religious creationism to be taught as an alternative science to evolution in his public schools.

Reason 10: Gov. John Kasich

Two points in the Iowa poll bursts the Ohio governor's political balloon before it was even half filled.

Not that a guy who touts deregulating public schools ever had a chance.

Reason 11: Sarah Palin

Hahahaha. Even Bill O'Reilly questioned the "seriousness" of both her and Donald Trump's faux candidacies.

Reason 12: Rand Paul

Paul has the unfortunate task of explaining to the millions of viewers of the recent film Selma why he thinks the Civil Rights Bill and the 1965 Voting Rights Bill were bad ideas and unconstitutional.

Reason 13: Rick Perry

Do I have to remind anyone that he lost debates to Cain and Newt Gingrich in 2012?

Reason 14: Marco Rubio

This year's leader in flip-flops and issue doubletalk is actually auditioning for vice president.

Sadly, he jumped on the Mitt Romney victory train just before it derailed.

Reason 15: Rick Santorum

They stole Iowa from him in 2012 and he's obsessed with righting that wrong.

He's got to get over it!

Reason 16: Donald Trump

See Reason 11.

Reason 17: Scott Walker

The current Republican front-runner thinks it's a great idea to slash hundreds of millions from his state's public-university system over the next two years, while at the same time calling for nearly $500 million for a new basketball stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks. And you wonder why the

Democrats are smiling.

Michael Goldman is a paid political consultant for Democratic candidates and president of Goldman Associates in Boston.

By Michael Goldman
Lowell Sun
February 9, 2015

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/opinion/ci_27485416/heres-17#ixzz3SR6QKMaV