“For three election cycles, American Crossroads, the brainchild of Karl Rove and other leading Republican strategists, has been among the most powerful forces in national politics, a shadow party that has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising, data and opposition research to help elect candidates,” the New York Times reports.

“But in the early days of the 2016 presidential campaign, Crossroads — among the first outside groups to fully exploit the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision unleashing wealthy donors and corporations — has been buffeted by a rapidly changing political landscape that is testing its pre-eminence, and potentially its survival.”

Karl Rove: “With midterms over, let’s give political junkies a fix by surveying the emerging GOP presidential field. Twenty-three Republicans have publicly indicated interest (not including Mitt Romney, who says he has no plans to run). Here they are, with strengths and weaknesses.”

P.J. O’Rourke: Why 2016’s hopefuls are hopeless

[speech_bubble type=”std” subtype=”a” icon=”pwdome.jpg” name=””]This is a much stronger roster of potential candidates that Republicans had in 2012. It will be interesting to see how many actually run. [/speech_bubble]