Oprah Winfrey’s speech last night at the Golden Globes was inspirational and motivating.  It was as good as it gets, and sounded to me more like a campaign kickoff speech than a gold-statue award thank you.  And, of course, social media lit up with Oprah 2020 memes.  I have to say I like the idea; she’s nationally known with super high recognition; she’s a successful television and movie star; she has high approval ratings; she’s started and run several very successful businesses; and she’s been involved in politics for years.  She’s a great choice in my book, and brings many of the positives that Obama did, with fewer negatives.  I would say if she’s game, I think she would be the perfect counterpoint to that thing currently infesting the White House.

Speaking of movie stars, what about Tom Hanks?  He would also be good, though not as strong as Oprah, but I could get behind that candidacy, too.  So lets look at the others considered by the Washington Post a couple of weeks ago when they provided their ranking of 15 possible candidates, starting with number 15 (with my own reaction):

15. Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson – B grade movie star, former pro wrestler. Uh, NO.

14. Terry McCauliffe – Gov. of Virginia.  Clinton attack dog.  NO.

13. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz – Good businessman, no recognition, no political base.  NO.

12. Deval Patrick – Former Gov. of Massachusetts – Highly qualified, good political base.  POSSIBLE.

11.  Oprah – See above.  A definite YES.

10. Andrew Quomo – Gov. of New York.  Waffled on sexual harassment.  Good record as governor, but not very inspiring.  MAYBE

9.  Sherrod Brown – Sen. from Ohio.  Firebrand, strong progressive voice.  Good with labor.  Good political base.  YES.

8.  Jerry Brown – Gov. of California.  Great progressive voice.  Turned California around.  Great governor.  Too old.  NO.

7.  Chris Murphy – Sen. of Connecticut.  Tim Kaine-like.  Great senator, progressive voice.  Not strong enough. NO.

6.  Cory Booker – Sen. of New Jersey.  New Jersey; ’nuff said.  He’d be compared continuously to Obama to the negative.  Weak MAYBE.

5.  Kamala Harris – Sen. of California.  Great candidate, highly qualified, well spoken, inspirational.  But can she carry the middle working class whites?  Give her the benefit of the doubt.  YES.

4.  Kirsten Gillibrand – Sen. of New York.  Great possibility until she kneecapped Al Franken for her own benefit.  NO.

3.  Elizabeth Warren – Sen. of Massachusetts.  Great progressive voice, highly qualified.  It would be hard for her to carry the center.  MAYBE.

2.  Joe Biden – Love me some Joe Biden, but he’ll be 75 in 2020.  He should have run in 2016.  Too old.  He should go back to the Senate. NO.

1.  Bernie Sanders – Great progressive voice, inspirational to millions.  Too old, unelectable.  NO.

The other one missing from the list here is Hillary.  That’s good, since her time is done, she’s a two time loser, and will be too old.  Oh, and the Castro brothers don’t have enough seasoning yet. One of them needs to be governor, the other senator. And what about Sally Yates?  She’s a former US attorney, former Deputy Attorney General.  She needs to run for US Senate from Georgia in 2020 and knock out David Perdue.  Better yet, she could run for  governor, knock off Nathan Deal THIS YEAR, then run for president.  Having said all that, here’s my ranking, and I would like to know what you think, or if you have other candidate ideas:

1. Oprah ★
2. Kamala Harris
3. Sherrod Brown
4. Deval Patrick
5. Elizabeth Warren
6. Cory Booker
7. Andrew Cuomo

And then there’s always Tom Hanks, right?