In the liberal fantasyland that is the Associated Press, it's only Republican governors with an eye on 2016 that are fraught with potential problems that could end their campaigns before they begin. In their May 2 AP story, reporters Bob Lewis and Charles Babington sought to convince readers that the Republicans governors of Virginia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Florida are all train wrecks.
Lewis and Babington focused in particular on Virginia's Bob McDonnell and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, who are unpopular in no small part because of moves they made on tax policy. McDonnell signed off on massive tax increases for transportation, while Jindal’s failed attempt to reform his state tax code -- making the state income tax free but boosting some sales taxes to make up for lost revenue -- has eroded his once-stellar popularity. Of course, plenty of Democratic governors thinking about 2016 also hiked taxes, but they were curiously left out of the mix.
Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley pushed through an unpopular gas tax hike and a hidden "rain tax" that's impacting the state's most populous counties. O'Malley also has egg on his face with a scandal involving a prison where corrupt guards let prison gang bosses run the show. In an unrelated prison matter, Maryland's liberal Democratic comptroller complained of a “systemic rot” over the past six years in Maryland's prison system. O'Malley took office in 2007, six years ago.
If a conservative Republican said that of a Republican governor considering a 2016 run, you can imagine the play the liberal media would give it.
Further up the eastern seaboard, New York's Andrew Cuomo has a very liberal track record that could be troublesome in a presidential race, if the media chose to make it an issue, such as his push to loosen restrictions on late-term abortions, hardly a wise move in the wake of the Gosnell trial, although, again, many Americans are unaware of the gruesome details there because of a virtual media blackout.
Add on top of that Hillary Clinton's Benghazi woes, which could well come back to bite her, what with whistleblowers clamoring to testify to Congress.
Democrats have just as many problems with their 2016 candidates, but for the Democrat-boosting media, it’s always Republicans who are stuck in the mud.
