Former Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn offered a blunt assessment of the 2016 Republican presidential field in an interview with the Washington Examiner.
Though he had words of praise for Marco Rubio, Mike Huckabee and Carly Fiorina, beyond that, he said, “The others are either too political, too polarizing, or not ready for prime time.”
Coburn cautioned that it was a “wasted effort” to focus on the 2016 election a year and a half in advance, because it was a distraction from the problems facing the country. But, in response to the Examiner, he offered the following evaluations of the field.
On Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker:
“Scott Walker I don’t think is ready. I think a lot of his successes were engineered by a lot of people not just necessarily Scott Walker and I don’t want a communal president. I want somebody that has strong core values, stand up and lead, can speak to it and actually accomplish what they say they’re doing rather than have other people accomplish it.”
On Rand Paul:
“Rand scares me to death on foreign policy. He’s a nice guy, but we have enough of a wreck right now in foreign policy. We don’t need to add more to it. We actually need to go the other way and strengthen it.”
On Ted Cruz:
“Ted Cruz is too young, too immature, and too polarizing in my opinion. He’s a great guy. He’s sold on conservative principles, but how you manage those principles are really important, and how you speak to them, and how you keep open dialogue with people who disagree with you rather than saying, ‘This is it. If you’re not here, you’re not with me.’ Is there room to convince people, to softly care for them enough to where they hear your voice and hear your principles and logic behind where you stand.”
On Jeb Bush:
“I don’t think another Bush can get elected. I think there’s Bush fatigue and I think you automatically lose a large percentage of the electorate. I like Jeb Bush. But the fact is his last name will kill 47 percent of the votes for him — potential votes in this country. That’s a big deal to get over.”
On a more positive note on Marco Rubio:
“I know Marco really well. I know his heart and I also know his brain. He’s pretty young but he’s pretty mature for his age and I think he’s a great man. I don’t know if he’ll make a great president, but he’s a great man, with great morals, and a great work ethic. And I don’t see anything negative other than maybe his wife has a heavy foot … It tells you that the politics are already being played even though we’re a year and a half out because he must be doing pretty well or else they wouldn’t be hitting him on something so stupid as his wife’s driving record.”
On Mike Huckabee and Carly Fiorina:
“I like Huckabee. I like Carly Fiorina. I think she’s smart.”
