The Republicans considering a run in 2016 will need to appeal to a broad base of Americans. Howard Bragman, founder of Fifteen Minutes Public Relations, took at look at five potential GOP candidates on Jansing & Co. Thursday and offered his take on what kind of extreme makeover they may need to undergo if they plan to run in 2016.
Gov. Chris Christie
"Chris Christie really polls the strongest of any Republican in the general election. And that's good news and bad news. It's good news in the general election. But the question is 'will he ever get there in the Republican Party?' where you have to veer severely to the right to go through the primary season. And I think if Chris Christie is going to keep his soul, keep his integrity, he has to do it and not veer too far to the right."
Fmr. Gov. Jeb Bush
"The good news is he's Jeb Bush. The bad news is he's Jeb Bush... I think Jeb Bush has to be his own man. He has to get some separation from his brother [former President George W. Bush] in particular. And I wish he had been a little more moderate. I think he would have been more credible as a candidate because there's a lot of the base who will vote for anybody named Bush."
Sen. Marco Rubio
"I think that the Republicans have to look at Sarah Palin and say just because you put a woman in, doesn't mean you get the female vote. Just because you put a Latino in, doesn't mean you're going to immediately get the Latino vote. He's got a fairly moderate view on immigration, but Latinos are interested in much more than that."
Sen. Ted Cruz
"The young senator from Texas is someone who's going to appeal to the red meat, right-wing base very much so and doesn't really have a snowball's chance in the general election. But it's going to be interesting. The Republicans have the battle within themselves they have to overcome before they can really win this election."
Sen. Rand Paul
"He's a really interesting guy. He's a lot like his father in that he's got a strong libertarian streak in him. And he is going to accumulate, aggregate somewhere between 10% and 20% of the people... but he's not a reliable conservative. And he's going to have trouble because of that. Some of those issues which are more libertarian are not going to sit well with the Tea Party. He could be a spoiler though."