“In terms of who we fear the most, the Democratic side, just speaking for myself, I would fear John Kasich and Marco Rubio as vice president,” Rendell told host John Catsimatidis on “The Cats Roundtable” on New York’s AM-970 on Sunday. “That would be the ticket I would fear the most.”

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The former Pennsylvania governor said Rubio at the top of the ticket would also be fearsome, but said the inexperience of the first-term Florida senator would hurt him in a general election.

“I would also fear Rubio to an extent, but Rubio runs into trouble, because the Republicans have argued for eight years that Barack Obama wasn’t ready to be president, because he had only been a U.S. senator for a short time, less than three years, and he had no previous executive experience, and that sort of fits the bill for Marco Rubio as well,” he said.

“Donald Trump is for real. He has expanded his lead even after his very inappropriate statement about Muslims. He’s now up around the high 30s and even in one poll 41 percent of the national, nationwide vote,” he said.

“I think he’s going to lose in Iowa to Ted Cruz, but he’s going to come in a close second, he’s going to win in New Hampshire, and win in South Carolina. He’s a force to be reckoned with.”

Rendell, who was also mayor of Philadelphia for two terms, said he thinks Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) can win New Hampshire on the Democratic side, but doesn’t like his odds to win the party nomination against Hillary Clinton.

“I think Bernie Sanders will put up a very good showing in Iowa or New Hampshire — he may even win New Hampshire — but I think after those two primaries, we go to South Carolina and Hillary’s ahead in the polls by 35, 40 points, Nevada she’s ahead by 20 points,” he said.

“And then we go to March 1, which is mostly Southern states, and Hillary’s running 30, 40 points ahead in most of those states. So I think she should essentially have the nomination locked up by March 2.”