Former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer for Pres?

 National Journal has an interesting piece on Former Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer. Keep an eye on this guy as we churn toward the 2016 election. Schweitzer caught my eye with his 2008 Democratic Convention speech in Denver. His appeal comes not from an Ivy League degree or long business career on Wall Street, but as a rancher in Whitefish, Montana. His education is in international agronomy from Colorado State and a graduate degree from Montana State University in soil science. He is a supporter of green energy programs and signed the Montana Firearms Freedom Act into law that exempted all state residents from federal firearms laws. He is a supporter of a national single payer health care system. He'd be hard to paint as an East Coast elitist or socialist type.

His wiki file...

As the article and most pundits agree, if Hillary Clinton decides to run for President in 2016, its believed that she's a lock for the nomination, with and outside shot of Vice President Joe Biden being her most serious competition. (But not really.) However, if Clinton decides not to run, then Biden becomes the front-runner, but he'd turn 74 a few weeks after the general election in November 2016. Plus, Biden is perceived by many as a Washington insider and could easily be attacked as an extension of the Obama presidency, which may or may not hurt him with independent voters. If the electorate decided Biden wasn't for them, a moderate liberal like Schweitzer, who has a history of working across the aisle in Montana politics, (he appointed John Bohlinger, a Republican, as his candidate for Lieutenant Governor in 2005. Never before in Montana politics had a Democrat and a republican ran together in a Gubernatorial election.)

Seems to be an interesting voice. The Democratic bench isn't nearly as long as the GOP's bench is, so who knows?

Just tuck his name away in your memory for later purpose...


Source:

http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/meet-the-gun-loving-straight-talking-2016-democratic-presidential-dark-horse-20130222

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHysr_IluI

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montana_Firearms_Freedom_Act

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Schweitzer