I want Jerry Brown to run for President in 2016.
There are plenty of reasons why he won't - he's Reagan Old at this point; his state is Deep Blue, so he adds nothing electorally; and he appears to be serious about focusing 100% of his time on rebuilding California from its Prop 13-induced decline and Lost Decade(s).
Here's the thing though: He's succeeding. California is recovering on a deep, fundamental economic level, for the first time in decades. Budgets are steadily rising, and in a way that adds to rather than subtracts from the future. And he manages Republicans in the legislature in a way that suggests he is quite the Asshole Whisperer.
Brown clearly knows something about governance that most of the rabble in politics have either lost or never knew to begin with. I wasn't around for his original gubernatorial career, so I won't dignify the attitude that had dominated about "Governor Moonbeam" by assuming it was justified. Either way, there seems to be general consensus that his political talents have aged like fine wine.
Now, that isn't to say I'm necessarily discounting any other candidate - even in saying that I want him to run, my primary vote would still be contingent on the delivery of a campaign worth rallying around. And despite my skepticism of the political talents of, say, Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders in delivering results, I would certainly give them fair time to prove they can generate a strong and broad national movement. But I definitely want Brown in the mix.
He's basically Eisenhower - people like him, but nobody loves him enough to inspire hatred in someone else. And he just keeps delivering good results without generating much drama. Strikes me as the sort of leader who tunnels through mountains instead of trying to climb them. Which is an apt metaphor given that he's almost the only Governor in the country (possibly the only period - I'm not entirely sure) who's actually delivering on plans to build high-speed rail, however technologically flawed the specific plans are.
Plus he has a superb relationship with Silicon Valley and its rapidly-expanding network of enterprises (it's now deep into clean energy, automotive, and spaceflight), and at this point in our nation's history it's about the only productive sector that still makes us relevant. Most of the rest of the US economy is just noisy entropy (Wall Street, banking), poverty-promoting degeneracy (big-box retailers), or vicious, politically destabilizing corruption (oil, gas).
Overcoming systemic problems that decades of politicians have not is a skillset you can't buy or fake. So, while most likely Brown has no intention of running, for the reasons stated and probably others, it's worth noting that he is a valuable resource.
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Please. No chance. Jerry Brown would make a great President. And he can win a general election. Bernie Sanders has absolutely no chance of winning a general election .
they are large, but not grotesquely so.
as opposed to supporting the guy who did this-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Port_of_Oakland_dock_protest
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rubber-bullets-quiet-oakland-protest/
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Dozens-of-antiwar-protesters-injured-at-Port-of-2623403.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UC_Davis_pepper-spray_incident
A lot of that budget-balancing has come on the backs of the poor. He slashed safety-net programs like Medi-Cal (our name for Medicaid) and CalWORKS (please don't call it "welfare" 
) to the bone, and refuses to restore them even now that we have a surplus. Instead, he wants to use some of the surplus to pay down some of the debt that Ahh-nuld piled up, and sink much of the rest into a "rainy-day fund". FAIL.
Until his reputation was trashed by a conservative smear campaign, Jones seemed to be following a steady presidential trajectory. I'm still hoping that he can recover and get back on track. He's an inspiring, visionary leader, who also happens to be incredibly smart as well as photogenic.
(By the way, Jones was actually born in Tennessee, but he's been a force for good in California for nearly 20 years.)
I would TOTALLY be down with that! Maybe even be his running mate (although I'd have to move back East, a la Cheney )
