For the Democrats, I prefer Sanders, I think. His campaign seems like an incredible breath of fresh air and is addressing the most important issues facing the US political system at the moment. I am really impressed by the movement he has built, and when you compare the way in which his campaign is being funded (over 3m donations averaging $27 apiece), it is really quite incredible. At the same time, I think his rhetoric is starting to become a little repetitive and tiresome - he seems to be trying to bring everything back to Citizens United, corruption and massive wealth inequality. Those are obviously massive issues, but in recent debates he seems to be shying away from actually answering varied questions by going back to his taglines on these areas.
Not sure what I think about Hillary Clinton, she seems to really polarise people outside of the Republican Party. Obviously some of the smears and campaigns against her led by the GOP are stupid and unfair, but at the same time, I have noticed how smooth a political operator she is - and when I do spot it, it just makes her come across like a bit of a slimy politician to me. And the fact she's flip-flopped on important things and seems to be very cosy with Wall Street and special interest groups settles very uneasy with me. Can't work out if these issues are overstated, because she is incredibly experienced and a good politician so in some respects I do think she would be able to implement progressive policies better than Sanders would.
On the Republican side, the field is just laughable for the most part. I was never that interested in US politics until I saw Trump's announcement and realised he wasn't trolling, but now I see why lots of people are hooked. If I had to pick one (really do not see myself wanting to vote for any of these candidates if I could), maybe Kaisch. He seems actually pretty reasonable to me and has a bipartisan track record which suggests he would actually try to get things done by reaching out to the Democrats. That said, I've heard his record as Ohio governor has actually had some very conservative aspects, particularly in terms of heavily restricting abortion access.
The GOP establishment is so blatantly gunning for Rubio. I'm not actually sure this is helping him given the massive anti-establishment sentiment that is propelling Trump and Cruz. In the last debate the audience was so obviously biased in favour of Rubio - he could have been making seal noises and they'd still have cheered him on. I found it irritating, so those watching at home supporting Trump or Cruz were probably more alienated from voting for him as a result.