Who Is The Ron Paul of 2016?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/ron-paul-n-h-crowd-dangerous-status-quo-132631014.html

As I have alluded in recent posts, I love a good third party type candidate who stretches the party out on the limbs.  Maybe it is just the way I am wired, maybe because I like to be different, or maybe because I don't know what I'm talking about, either way I love it.

Thankfully, 2012 has not proven to be a lack-luster year for that kind of candidate.  Ron Paul has taken on the big dogs of the Republican Party, and somehow or another been able to do well.  His race for the Republican bid has drawn good numbers, and his strong second place showings in Iowa and New Hampshire (both of which I contend do not really matter) are going to set him on pace for at least a Vice- President slot.  We can only hope for more out of the Republicans than that but such is the way the cookie will crumble.

In looking at Paul, I cannot help but get excited about who might fill his shoes in 2016.  By then Paul will be much too old to be in politics for the Republicans, so someone will need to step up to that plate. The best part of the 2016 election is that it will be a new slate for the Democrats too.  I already have my list of candidates the Democrats in the Primaries, complete with my Ron Paul of the 2016 election.  And the nominee is....Drum role please....Bernie Sanders.

Sanders, who will be 75 in 2016, will push the party on issues like campaign finance, organized labor and undoubtedly any foreign conflict we might be involved in by then.  He like Paul, will be willing to hit the _____ist cord for the Democrats.  Paul has the progressivist /Constitutionalists notes down pat, and Sanders will touch on the true socialist/progressivists movments that are awakening.  Young people, will flock to him because of his support in gay rights, and willingness to meet with people of various thought processes.  Everything about Sanders makes him a good candidate to move the platform away from this crazy, neo-liberal/socialist/moderate/free-market/whatever that President Obama has created (though I am very much a fan of it) and put it back on the plain of a populist/socialist/progressivist type platform that would make both Eugene Debs, and Cornel West happy.  It might even make me interested, but I am always up for a new flavor. 

Insofar as the Republicans, I'm not sure who they might have.  Rand Paul might pick up the mantel, though he will be tauted as inexperienced.  Eric Cantor might, but he might easily make too many enemies. Whom ever it is, they MUST be as good as Ron Paul is to get me fired up.