NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. -- Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator who very well may have been a Michigan primary win away from being the Republican nominee, gave a rousing defense of social values here at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

“For those in our movement who want to abandon our moral underpinnings to win, what does it profit a movement to gain the country and lose its own soul?" Santorum told this room of thousands of conservative activists at CPAC to raucous applause. "The left in America has made that Faustian bargain… We must not.” 

Santorum’s speech, which led off with an emotional recounting of the untimely death of his nephew, will only likely stoke speculation that he is thinking about another run in 2016. He set out what conservatives should fight for, had plenty of attacks on President Barack Obama, distanced himself from Congress -- despite having served there for 16 years, and even noted that he had created a conservative advocacy group, something that will help keep him in the conversation on the right.

Santorum accused the president of wanting to “close the deal” on a transformation of America 100 years in the making. He said Obama “wants to replace the ‘why’ of American Revolution for ‘why’ of French revolution –- a society that is Godless without faith,” that is “anti clerical, anti-God, where the government is the center, and they are the ones who care for us. This is President Obama’s New Deal.”

He added, “How do we turn this around? How do we make a difference in America today? I’ve tried to do my part.”

He contended that the problem on the right is not that there are not enough conservatives, it is that that conservatives -- and churchgoing social conservatives, in particular -- are not fired up enough.

“The passion in America has been on the other side,” Santorum said before warning, “They live their lives every day to transform us. Those who think America will be just fine … we just go about our lives. But we don’t have the passion that they do. To rise up and fight against what our founders said was the greatest threat to freedom -- time. Time. The erosion of our values over time, that we will lose that revolutionary fervor… Karen and I are committed that we are not going to let that happen on our watch.”

Of course, after the 2004 election, there were books written about the influence of social conservatives. They had helped re-elect President George W. Bush and were being touted as potentially spurring a permanent “Red America.” But white born-again Christians actually made up a higher share of the electorate in 2012 than 2004. In 2004, they made up 23 percent of the electorate; in 2012, they were 26 percent. 

Santorum continued, “Don’t look to Washington, D.C. to solve this problem. There are very few leaders in Congress. There are a lot of followers. If you look to them to solve their problems, you will be disappointed. … The answer is here.”

Paul Ryan — the GOP's 2012 vice presidential nominee — declined to weigh in on the direction of his party during a speech Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference and focused his remarks instead on the budget he authored this week

The Wisconsin congressman, who chairs the House Budget Committee, focused his remarks at CPAC almost exclusively on the budget he produced on Tuesday, the third he has written as chairman of the panel.

Ryan's budgets helped build his notoriety among conservatives, and propelled him to the spot as Mitt Romney's running mate last fall. But amid Republican soul-searching about the party's path forward, Ryan stuck to remarks about his budget — a series of proposals that are already generally popular among conservatives.

"This has been a really big week. We got white smoke from the Vatican, and we got a budget from the Senate," he joked. "But when you read it, you find the Vatican's not the only place blowing smoke this week."

Ryan's just one of several speakers thought to be possible contenders for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Among others, Sens. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Marco Rubio, R-Fla., both spoke yesterday.

Those two senators concentrated their remarks mostly on the direction of the GOP, and why — or why not — the party is in need of reinvention.

Carolyn Kaster / AP

House Budget Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., speaks about the 2014 Budget Resolution during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 12, 2013.

Ryan's remarks were mostly a rehash of his press conferences and media appearances in support of his budget.

"Today, I want to make the case for balance," he said. "That case, in a nutshell, is that a balanced budget will create a healthier economy."

The man whom Ryan hoped would become president this year, Mitt Romney, will address CPAC later this afternoon.

This story was originally published on Fri Mar 15, 2013 10:11 AM EDT

Yesterday at CPAC, the GOP identity crisis was on full display, and it likely will be again today. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul were the highlights, speaking back to back. Rubio said the Republican Party doesn’t need new ideas. But he didn’t talk about immigration reform, something he is championing in the Senate and shift to the left for the party. Paul criticized the GOP as “stale and moss covered,” but only received tepid applause for his foreign-policy views.

Today’s lineup features Mitt Romney, Wayne LaPierre, Rick Santorum, Bobby Jindal, Paul Ryan, and even Donald Trump.

Romney speaks at 1 pm ET. How he’s received will be the thing to watch. Since his loss in 2012, the right has roundly criticized Romney and his campaign not understanding demographics better but also for not standing more firmly for conservative principles. CPAC is where Romney announced his dropout of the 2008 presidential race and where last year, he called himself a “severely” conservative governor, despite staking out a moderate image in Massachusetts. Romney has finished first or second in every CPAC straw poll over the last six years. Romney’s emergence is one some are questioning.

“What can he offer them?” Reagan biographer Craig Shirley told NBC’s Michael O’Brien. “Based on his interview I saw last weekend, not much. When he ran, he didn’t seem to understand much of this country.”

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, one of Romney’s rivals for the 2012 nomination took a not-so-subtle swipe at Romney (and John McCain), as NBC’s Kasie Hunt reported: "The popular media narrative is that this country has shifted away from conservative ideas, as evidence by the last two presidential elections. That’s what they think, that’s what they say. That might be true if Republicans had actually nominated conservative candidates in 2008 and 2012."

NRA chief Wayne LaPierre speaks at 10:45 am ET, a day after a Senate committee passed an assault-weapons ban along party lines.

Santorum is set to hit at noon ET, Jindal at 2:25 pm ET, Ryan in the morning at 9:30 preceded by Trump at 8:45. Others of note: Mitch McConnell 9 am ET, Kelly Ayotte 9:15 am ET, Eric Cantor 3:35 pm ET. There will also be a panel on the November 2012 autopsy at 9:45 am ET.

USA Today: “Paul and Marco Rubio, Republican senators being measured as 2016 presidential possibilities, gave campaign-style speeches at the annual conservative gathering: soaring rhetoric and a quick rundown of policy positions. Paul attacked wasteful government spending, advocated a flat tax and suggested eliminating the Department of Education. … In an implicit rebuke to former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's dismissal of 47% of the electorate, Rubio said the country doesn't have ‘too many people who want too much from government.' At a gathering with a heavy focus on improving Republican appeal to Hispanic voters, Rubio avoided the topic of immigration. Instead, he touched on energy policy, school choice and economic rivalry with China, and he defended social conservatism.”

Yahoo: “As part of an ambitious plan to make the Republican Party more competitive in future elections, the Republican National Committee is working with outside groups to build a platform that will allow the party to share its massive warehouse of voter data with GOP vendors, campaigns and committees.”

MARYLAND: The AP reports that Maryland is on track to end its state death penalty. “It's been eight years since Maryland executed a convicted killer, but that could be the last time if the General Assembly, as expected, gives final passage this week to a bill to abolish capital punishment.Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Democrat, has been pushing for the change since his first year in office. Now the Democratic-controlled legislature seems poised to make Maryland the 18th state in the nation to do away with the death penalty. A repeal bill has already been approved by the state Senate and it was expected to win final passage from the House of Delegates on Friday.”

MASSACHUSETTS: The SEIU endorsed Ed Markey.

MISSISSIPPI: National Journal tells the story of a black, gay mayoral candidate who was killed. “[B]ecause this is Clarksdale, a haunted town with an unclean past, and because McMillian was black, gay, running for office, and cut down in his prime, the speculation [of his death] has run wild and fierce. The story people tell often says more about the teller than the subject.”

It was split personality Thursday at the first day of the Conservative Political Action Conference, where panelists who favored immigration reform shared the same stage with conservatives who continued to question the Obama administration's explanation for Benghazi.

The conservative movement's reformists got their time in the spotlight, but so did figures who continue to hew to Republican orthodoxy — a display of the identity crisis that has plagued the GOP following successive losses in two presidential elections.

Take, for instance, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's speech early this afternoon, in which he said conservative principles "still work."

"Our challenge is to create an agenda," he said, "applying our time-tested principles to the challenges of today."

The speaker immediately following him, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (who, like Rubio, is thought of as a contender for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016), struck a different note.

He told conference attendees that "the GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered," suggesting that the party was ripe for re-invention. (It's new direction, Paul said, involved "going forward to the classical and timeless ideas.")

Nonetheless, their speeches were symptomatic of the identity crisis from which the conservative movement is currently suffering.

The same conference that hosted a panel on offering undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship — regarded as a politically forward-thinking proposal for Republicans — featured another rehashing the Sept. 11, 2012 attacks on a U.S. diplomatic post in Libya, dwelling on conspiracy theories about the Obama administration's response to those attacks.

The CPAC scene was no less full of its knocks on the media, or vendors peddling radio shows or magazines for conference attendees.

The first day of CPAC saw a movement being beckoned toward the future, but with its heels dragging firmly in the past.

OXON HILL, Md. -- Rand Paul had tough words for his own party, describing it as “stale and moss covered” before conservatives at the Conservative Political Action Conference. 

“The Republican Party has to change by going forward to the classical and timeless ideas enshrined in our Constitution,” the Kentucky senator said here. He added, “We need a Republican Party that shows up on the Southside of Chicago and shouts at the top of our lungs 'We are the party of jobs and opportunity. The GOP is the ticket to the middle class.' The GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered. I don't think we need to name any names here, do we?” 

The critique of the GOP received resounding applause from this crowd, but the reception for Paul, whose tone could be described as solemn, wasn’t full-throated. His speech, in fact, highlighted the difficulty he would face if he were to make an expected 2016 run. 

Paul, the heir to his father Ron’s “torch of liberty,” tried here to straddle the line between his staunch libertarianism -- which includes dovish views on foreign policy, privacy rights and even drug use -- with his conservative line on spending that principally makes him a darling of these activists.

Many here praised Paul for his modern-era record 13-hour filibuster. But not all did so on the substance.

“I have a message for the President, a message that is loud and clear, a message that doesn't mince words,” Paul began. 

“Don't drone me, bro!” interrupted one young supporter.

The crowd laughed; Paul leaned back, took it in, and joked that that was not exactly the message.

But Paul only received tepid applause as he made his way through the opening section of his speech about civil liberties and drone use. Paul has raised questions about the administration’s contention that drones could be used against Americans acting as enemy combatants on American soil.

“Good intentions are not enough,” Paul said was his message for President Barack Obama. There were just a smattering of applause.

“If we allow one man to charge Americans as enemy combatants and indefinitely detain or drone them, then what exactly is it our brave young men and women are fighting for?” Paul said, and again just tepid applause.

“Our Bill of Rights is what defines us and makes us exceptional,” Paul said to polite applause.

On reaching out to youth, Paul said, “They want leaders that won't feed them a line of crap or sell them short. They aren't afraid of individual liberty.” Just a light round of claps.

Paul was much better received when criticizing the president for spending, taxes, the sequester, and cutting foreign aid and waste – instead of White House tours.

“The only stimulus ever proven to work is leaving more money in the hands of those who earned it!” Paul said.

“Only in Washington could an increase of $7 trillion in spending over a decade be called a cut,” Paul said of the sequester. And added to raucous applause: “Meanwhile the President found an extra $250 million to send to Egypt. … I say-not a penny more to countries that burn our flag.”

Paul contended that instead of eliminating White House tours, he should cut research for “monkeys on meth,” robotic squirrels, and menus for colonization on Mars that were developed by college students given all-expense paid trips to Hawaii. 

“Mr. President, maybe we could have cut robotic squirrels before White House tours,” Paul said.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, R, served up a familiar portion of conservative red meat to CPAC attendees on Thursday, endearing himself to activists who could help propel him to a higher political office in the future. 

Rubio received a rock star's welcome before speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he used his 15-some-minute slot to extol traditional conservative positions on taxes, education, abortion, same-sex marriage and trade with China. 

"We don't need a new idea. The idea's America, and it still works," said Rubio, to major applause, anticipating that liberals would criticize his remarks for offering no new ideas.

But the Florida senator declined to ruffle any feathers, too. He didn't even mention the immigration overhaul on which he's worked, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for the 12 million undocumented residents currently in the United States.

Rather, Rubio argued to conservatives that there is no need to abandon their bedrock principles amid a bout of soul-searching within the GOP about how to broaden the party's appeal. The Florida senator repeatedly noted that the world has changed, but made the case for why standby Republican policies should stay the same. 

"Just because I believe that states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot," he said. 

"The people who are actually close-minded in American politics are the people that love to preach about the certainty of science in regards to our climate, but ignore the absolute fact that science has proven that life begins at conception," Rubio added.

Providing his prescription for the GOP as it searches for a winning path forward, Rubio said: "Our challenge is to create an agenda applying our principles — our principles, they still work — applying our time-tested principles to the challenges of today."

In essence, Rubio firmly staked himself in the camp of Republicans who argue that the party's makeover is more cosmetic than policy-based. 

And the one issue on which Rubio has been willing to defy party orthodoxy — immigration — went unmentioned.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush says that the public will view his older brother, former president George W. Bush, more favorably as time passes. 

"In (my father's) four years as president a lot of amazing accomplishments took place," said Jeb Bush, the son of former President George H.W. Bush, during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press.  "So my guess is that history will be kind to my brother, the further out you get from this and the more people compare his tenure to what's going on now."

The 43rd president has largely stayed out of the spotlight since leaving office. After presiding over broad public discontent over the Iraq War and a flailing economy, George W. Bush left the White House with poor approval ratings and was notably unpopular even within his own party. 

Jeb Bush said he hasn't yet spoken to their famous parents about the idea of his own 2016 run. 

"I don't want to begin the process to think about it until it's the proper time to do so," he said. 

Jeb Bush was interviewed on NBC as a part of a media blitz to promote his new book, 'Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution." 

He has come under fire this week for failing to include a path to citizenship for unauthorized immigrants in his proposed immigration plan, a turnaround from his previous embrace of that proposal. 

He acknowledged Sunday that he could still back a plan that includes a path to citizenship but said that his book was intended to offer a reform plan that conservatives strongly opposed to "amnesty" could still support. 

"If they can find a way to get to a path to citizenship over the long haul, then I would support that," he said of ongoing bipartisan negotiators on the reform effort. "But this book was written to try to get people that were against reform to be for it.  And it is a place where I think a lot of conservatives should feel comfortable, that there's a way to do this and not violate their principles."

Asked whether or not he thinks he is more likely than his fellow immigration reform advocate and Floridian Republican Sen. Marco Rubio to end up in the Oval Office, Bush poked fun at "addicts" of political journalism. 

"You guys are crack addicts," he told host David Gregory. (He later jokingly corrected that characterization to "heroin addicts.")  "You really are obsessed with all this politics."

The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter warns Democrats that they have some advantages heading into 2014 and beyond -- the history that a president’s party traditionally loses seats in midterm elections, the slowly growing economy, and the Democrats thin bench beyond Hillary Clinton. 

Just a day after his filibuster, Rand Paul says he’s “seriously” considering a 2016 bid. (Reality check: This is nothing news. It’s been basically a done deal since before his dad retired.)

ILLINOIS: “Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan spoke with several of the nation’s top progressive groups during a visit to Washington D.C. last week, further fueling expectations that the popular Democrat will run for governor in 2014,” Politico reports. “Madigan is weighing a campaign for the state’s top office even though the Democratic incumbent, Gov. Pat Quinn, has said he plans to seek another term.” 

INDIANA: The Indianapolis Star: “Koch group turns up heat on GOP state lawmakers.” From the story: “Gov. Mike Pence will get a little help from his conservative friends to push his tax cut through the Republican-dominated Indiana General Assembly. So far, the proposed 10 percent cut to individual income taxes has received a lukewarm reception from Pence's fellow Republicans in the legislature. But the conservative Americans for Prosperity group announced Thursday it will launch an aggressive media campaign to back the governor -- and browbeat reluctant GOP lawmakers. The national group was founded by the billionaire Koch brothers of Kansas and is known for opposing President Barack Obama and some of his programs. But Thursday, group President Tim Phillips said the organization and its 32 local chapters would be focusing more attention on state governments.” 

KENTUCKY: “Sen. Rand Paul’s almost 13-hour filibuster generated a massive amount of attention from conservative activists Wednesday, and many were asking why Minority Leader Mitch McConnell wasn’t on the floor cheering him on,” Roll Call writes. “Paul admitted on CNN that he declined to notify his fellow Kentucky Republican or Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., about his spontaneous plan to hold up Senate action on the nomination of John O. Brennan to be director of the CIA. But grass-roots conservatives helped push behind the scenes to get more Republican senators to join the protest of the Obama administration’s drone program.” 

MASSACHUSETTS: Mark your calendars for March 27 – it’s the first Democratic primary debate between Ed Markey and Stephen Lynch.

MICHIGAN: “Democratic Sen. Carl Levin's decision to not seek re-election in 2014 has set the stage for a wide-open race to replace the longest-serving senator in Michigan history,” AP writes, adding, “Levin is the sixth member of the Senate to announce his retirement, creating an open seat for Democrats in a state that has backed President Barack Obama twice but where Republicans hold the governor's office and the power in the rest of state government.” 

More: “Just one Republican has won a Michigan Senate seat in 40 years, Spencer Abraham in 1994, a non-presidential year.” Abraham was defeated by Debbie Stabenow in 2000. 

Talk about potentially CROWDED fields in the Michigan Senate open seat primaries. The names of 21 people have surfaced as possibilities, including six Democrats and 15 Republicans.

Democrats: Rep. Gary Peters, Rep. Mark Schauer, ex-Gov. Jennifer Granholm, ex-Gov. James Blanchard, attorney Geoffrey Fieger, and Debbie Dingell.

Republicans: Rep. Mike Rogers, Attorney General Bill Schuette, Lt. Gov. Brian Calley, Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, University of Michigan Athletic Director Dave Brandon, Rep. Candice Miller, Rep. Justin Amash, ex-Gov. John Engler, Detroit charter school founder Clark Durant, billionaire Dick DeVos, state Sen. Roger Kahn, state Senate Majority Leader Randy Richardville, University of Michigan regent Andrea Fischer Newman, former Secretary of State/RNC committeewoman Terri Lynn Land, Rep. Fred Upton.

Peters is the Democrat most Democrats point to.

And a GOP official pointed to the following Repubicans: Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House intelligence committee; Bill Schuette, the state attorney general and former three-term 1980s U.S. congressman. Ironically, Schuette gave up his House seat to run for the Senate against Carl Levin and lost; Brian Calley, the 35-year-old lieutenant governor. He’s the youngest lieutenant governor in the country; Secretary of State Ruth Johnson, and Dave Brandon, the University of Michigan’s athletic director.

The Detroit News says Rogers and Rep. Candice Miller would be two top possibilities. And it has this quote from Schuette’s spokesman: "Bill will continue on serving the citizens of Michigan as their attorney general," Schuette spokesman John Sellek said.

Republicans need to net six seats to take control of the Senate. Democrats currently are defending 21 seats of their 55, with seven in states won by Mitt Romney. They are defending open seats so far in West Virginia, Iowa, and New Jersey. In addition to West Virginia, the South Dakota seat is also a top GOP target – whether or not incumbent Sen. Tim Johnson retires or seeks another term.

SOUTH CAROLINA: For his opposition to Rand Paul’s filibuster, the hashtag on twitter #PrimaryGraham began.

“Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert, launched her first television advertisement Thursday as she seeks the Democratic nomination in South Carolina’s 1st District special election,” Roll Call writes.

Odd closing line, though: “I approve this message because I’m not going to talk about the jobs that we lost. I know what it takes to create new jobs.

During his presidential bids in 2008 and 2012, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was an easy target for establishment Republicans to ridicule.

Many laughed at his demands to "end" the Federal Reserve and reinstitute the gold standard. At debates, they sometimes booed his non-interventionist views on foreign policy and national security. And he never won a single nominating contest during those two presidential runs, though he did rack up delegates in 2012.

But Paul -- and his son, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) -- could be the ones laughing now.

Indeed, Rand Paul's marathon filibuster on Wednesday against President Obama's pick to head the CIA -- joined by other GOP senators (including conservative stars like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as well as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell) -- was the latest evidence that the Pauls might have had a larger imprint on today's Republican Party than its last two presidential nominees.

Consider the libertarianism in the Tea Party, the calls to cut spending, the growing suspicion of the Federal Reserve, and some growing skepticism about the use of force.

That sounds much more like Ron Paul than John McCain or Mitt Romney. And son Rand is already being viewed as a potential 2016 presidential candidate.

But it also doesn't mean that all Republicans have jumped on board. On Thursday, McCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) took to the Senate floor to denounce Rand Paul's criticism of the Obama administration's drone program -- the issue at the heart of his filibuster.

"If Mr. Paul wants to be taken seriously, he needs to do more than pull political stunts that fire up impressionable libertarian kids in their college dorms," McCain said, quoting the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page.

"To somehow allege or infer that the president of the United States is going to kill somebody like Jane Fonda or someone who disagrees with the policies is a stretch of imagination, which is frankly ridiculous," McCain added.

But that even this drone debate is taking place inside the GOP -- and that Cruz and Rubio joined Paul's filibuster -- shows the growing influence that the Pauls have had on the GOP and conservatism.

Hillary Clinton tops the presidential 2016 field in hypothetical matchups with Chris Christie (45%-37%), Paul Ryan (50-38%), and Marco Rubio (50-34%), according to a Quinnipiac poll. By contrast, Christie would beat Joe Biden (43-40%). Biden, however, beats Rubio (45-38%) and Ryan (45-42%). Andrew Cuomo loses badly to Christie (45-28%), ties Rubio (37%-37%), and loses to Ryan (42-37%).

Stu Rothenberg says Democrats have a chance to pick up governorships in some key states come 2014.

How many times can Newt Gingrich jump the shark? He says he’d be open to being on Donald Trump’s Celebrity Apprentice.

GEORGIA: “One likely candidate called Todd Akin ‘partially right’ about ‘legitimate rape.’ Another said evolution and the Big Bang theory are ‘lies straight from the pit of hell.’ A third accused the Obama administration of practicing ‘shakedown politics’ after BP set aside $20 billion to compensate victims for damage from the Gulf oil spill,” Politico writes. “The Republican primary for the open Senate seat in Georgia is shaping up to be a free-for-all, drawing interest from some of the most conservative members of the House and raising concerns that a race to the right could put in play what should be a safe seat. It comes as the party tries to head off the problem that cost it dearly in 2012: nominating candidates who say things so off-putting to mainstream voters that they blow the election.”

SOUTH CAROLINA: Lindsey Graham doesn’t seem to be sweating a tea party threat? Why? Jill Lawrence notes: “One of the most marked trends in South Carolina politics is the fade of the tea party. Only 5.5 percent of registered voters in the state said they considered themselves tea party members in the Winthrop poll, down from 19.2 percent in October 2010. Back then, about half of registered voters said they agreed with tea party principles. In last month’s poll, only 24.1 percent said they approved of the movement.”

It is polls like this that supporters of Hillary Clinton hope will drag the popular former secretary of state into the 2016 presidential race.

In a Quinnipiac poll out Thursday, the ex-New York senator beats all comers in the 2016 presidential field in hypothetical match ups against several top rivals.

The poll tested Democrats Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden, and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo individually against Republicans -- New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, and Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan, who ran as Mitt Romney’s vice-presidential pick in 2012 against President Barack Obama.

Clinton was the only Democrat to beat all three Republicans, and Christie, who was not invited to next week’s conservative confab CPAC, showed the most strength for the GOP.

Clinton beats Christie, 45-37 percent, Ryan 50-38 percent, and Rubio by an even wider 50-34 percent.

By contrast, Biden would lose narrowly to Christie 43-40 percent. Biden, however, defeats Rubio 45-38 percent and Ryan 45-42 percent.

Cuomo -- son of ex-Gov. Mario Cuomo, who had been urged to run for president in 1988 and 1992 -- loses badly to neighboring state governor Christie, 45-28 percent. He also loses to Ryan, 42-37 percent and would tie with Rubio at 37 percent.

Clinton left her job as Obama’s secretary of state with sky-high favorability ratings -- 56 percent viewed her positively, while just 25 percent viewed her negatively.

Of course, if she were to throw her hat into the presidential arena, her image would likely take a hit, as partisans retreat to their corners. During the height of the Democratic primary in March 2008, for example, Clinton’s favorability was just 37 percent positive, 48 percent negative.

But as the primary campaign ended, and she was able to take on the statesman role of secretary of state, her image has been rehabilitated. 

This story was originally published on Thu Mar 7, 2013 8:57 AM EST