No one has emerged as a potential presidential candidate for 2016 that really has me enthusiastic.
No tricks - I'm not just inviting people to mention someone so I can rip on them. I am honestly interested. If you could select our next president, who would it be?
It will be Hillary. Everyone knows it, some just don't want to admit it. To believe she is not running is laughable. My guess is that she will easily win the Democratic nomination, she will pick Julian Castro as her running mate, and she will win very easily in the general election.
The economy is likely to be doing better by then, the deficit will be down considerably as tax revenues increase, so winning won't be too difficult. By putting Castro on the ticket, it will force the Republican nominee to spend a lot of time in Texas campaigning just to hold on to the state, and a Clinton/Castro ticket actually might win in Texas. There has been some talk of Castro running for Governor in 2014 but to date he has insisted that he is just running for re-election for mayor in 2013. My guess is that people have already been talking to him about the possibility of him being on the ticket with Hillary.
Of course, I could be completely wrong on all of this, but that's what makes predicting things fun.