Here's what the perfect 2016 candidate looks like

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published 23 March 2015

A new CNN poll indicates that three big requirements are popping up on a majority of Americans' wish lists for their next president: Some 59 percent want an experienced candidate, and the same proportion want that experience to come from an executive, not legislative, background. Meanwhile, 57 percent of Americans — including 31 percent of self-described liberals — want a candidate who will "change most of the policies of the Obama administration."

The same poll found that younger voters care more about how much a candidate shares their views, while older people are just happy to vote for an electable ticket in their party. And while older voters were more likely to favor switching away from Obama's policies, the current president's agenda actually netted the most support among the 35-49 age bracket, while millennials (ages 18-34) are ready for a change by a ten-point margin.

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.