Here’s an interesting excerpt from an interesting interview:
"MSNBC: If we get a John Kerry concession speech and George Bush victory speech, where do we go from here?
**“(Tim) Russert: **What you’d have then, with George Bush re-elected, is two open primaries. You have the Republican primary and the Democratic primary. You have Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Howard Dean. You have Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Bill Frist. Think about it. It starts now.”
I saw a funny bumper sticker the other day. It said “Run Hilary, Run!” and then in small print it said, “Democrats: place on rear bumper, Everyone else: place on front bumper.”
McCain made pretty clear in 2000 that he was not particularly interested in Republican votes. It is very hard for me to imagine his winning the primaries in the Republican Party in those states that don’t allow cross over voting. He was crushed by Bush in 2000 once they got to the states with no cross over voting.
I used to love McCain back when he was a Conservative. Those days are over.
Giuliani will have tough sledding in the primaries as well because of his liberal social views. I wouldn’t write him off though.
There is no lack of talent in the Republican Party since they have so many governors. One lesson of this election we get to relearn is that Senators don’t win the Presidency. There are good reasons for that.
i would personally like mccain/lieberman. that would be a stellar ticket. i also wouldn’t mind arnold running. who’s more fearsome than arnold?! but please god dont let hillary run. (on a side note, as a relatively open minded person in the pursuit of further educating myself decided to read hillary’s book to decide for myself what all the fuss was about. i started into it being indifferent and uneducated about her, but finished it not liking her at all. )
More likely a Hillary-John McCain matchup. He’s too cute by half about his intentions. I don’t think Giuliani would be able to motivate enough of the evangelicals (there’s those pesky religious whackos again to come out and vote for him, and the party doesn’t want to risk losing the White House.
An alternate scenario is that the party will throw a weaker candidate out there and devote lots of resources towards builiding big numbers in the Congress, given that Dubya will probably be able to name anywhere from 1 to 4 new Supreme Court Justices this term. In the next 2 years, with as many as 55 Reepub Senators, and no Daschle to lead the filibuster charge, Bush could also pack the federal judiciary with judges more to the party’s liking. Giving up the White House to a relatively weakened Democratic president (always assuming that Hillary or Edwards or whomever has no strong coattails) in order to consolidate or even increase gains in the Congress, the Supreme Court and the federal bench could seem attractive to Tom DeLay and Bill Frist (who just might jump into the race in '08 himself).
I’d say both parties need to clean up their act a little bit. If Bush can’t clear up the domestic issues, the Republicans will lose regardless of candidate.
In order for the Democrats to win…they really need to figure out a way to pay for all their programs w/o raising taxes. The tax burden is simply too high for “America”. I say that b/c it works fine in other countries…but not in “the land of the free”. Democrats can’t seem to do anything except spend more money while blaming all the problem on the rich.
To that point, Bush really needs to start curbing his own spending. I $%@#$# pissed off that the war cost $XXbillion and counting. What could we get for $Xbillion? No one is trying to minimize the cost is drives me to want to go into defense contracting.
He can’t as of right now, but we’ll see what happens over the next three years (before the next presidential campaigns get started.) Should be interesting…
The President-ator? The Presidator? The Four-Year Term(inator)? (Sorry. Couldn’t help it.)
Right. I’m familiar with it. I’m talking about a possible change to the Constitution that would allow a foreign-born person to hold the office of President. Stranger things have happened…
I’d like to see Powell run, too, but it has been so clear that he has been very uncomfortable with some of the decsions that Bush has made. He looks compramised. I thought that he would have resigned, but he stayed on and often seem resigned and indifferent.
Hillary–not a chance. She is pretty despised except by the far left. Too much baggage.
Dean–again, way to far to the left. That scream will haunt him for decades.
Edwards–yeah, but what is he going to do for the next 4 years?
Evan Bayh–good midwest values, centrist, but will he even be able to get Indiana to vote for him, much less the rest of the midwest? He would be the logical choice except for the whole record-in-the-senate thing.
Reps:
Giuliani–IF he could get past the primaries, and I doubt that could happen given his social platforms, he would take it easily. Goes double for Arnold, aside from the Constitutional issues—the pro-choice platform goes against everything the right-wing base believes. Then again, if Bush gets his 2-3 appointees, what will it matter what the current admin thinks about abortion as they won’t be able to do anything about it?
McCain–too much of a wild card, and compared to Frist & McCain, just not enough of a prescence in debates or in speeches. Perrenial also-ran.
Bill Frist–probably the choice for the Repubs. Good story, southern boy, and not too much baggage…Senator vs Senator would be interesting assuming it was Bayh.
I agree that he would be ideal, but he has hasn’t in my opinion seemed comfortable with the burden of expectation.
A harlem boy made good - rose to the top of the military and now Secretary of State. Can you imagine the expectations? He is the PERFECT candidate for a new united America, but maybe he - like his wife - doesn’t want it.
You may be overlooking an obvious Republican candidate… Jeb Bush. He had aspirations to be President long before George W. did. The elder Bush once said he was actually surprised it was W instead of Jeb that ended up in the Whitehouse.
giulani is living off the aftermath of 9/11. i know many many people in new york that do not think very highly of him at all. the 9/11 effect will diminish further by next election. also, he made some very assinine statements as the lead attack dog for the repubs this election cycle. he’ll have a real tough go of it.
to come out and vote for him, and the party doesn’t want to risk losing the White House.