Let me start by repeating the obvious: this is a big year for national politics. It\u2019s already off to a roaring start, given the interesting outcomes of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. By the end of this week, two more states will add their results into the presidential candidate mix (Michigan and Nevada). And then two big southern primaries will follow in close order (South Carolina and Florida). There\u2019s plenty of political commentary being cranked out in the newspapers and blogs, to which there\u2019s not that much I can add. But for what little it\u2019s worth, I\u2019ll make this observation: the national parties have or are just about to bring it down to two sets of candidates (sort of like where the NFL playoffs stand this week). Those would be Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama on the Democratic side, and Mike Huckabee and John McCain for the GOP.<\/p>\n
The Democrats will choose just how they wish to make history. Will it be the wonky old woman, or the young black orator? The Republicans will also slug it out over two groundbreakers: the new Christian fundamentalist versus the old master of independence and integrity. Wow \u2013 choose your virtue, choose your poison. No two alike! Each would take the country in a unique direction. But more than that; just the election of either one would make a bold statement. Clinton \u2013 women finally have their day. Obama \u2013 true racial equality can still be achieved. Huckabee \u2013 a man of the cloth should be in charge (hmmmm, haven\u2019t they tried that in the Middle East?). McCain \u2013 a politician should try not to be so political, at least once elected (now there\u2019s an idea \u2013 if he can pull it off).<\/p>\n
And it would all go totally off the map if Mike Bloomberg decided to run, especially if he picked a running mate that made him worth considering (my choice for that role would be Colin Powell). The iron-clad rule is that third party candidates for the Presidency are never taken seriously. But 2008 is starting to look like the year when all the rules have flown the coupe. So what would a Bloomberg victory say? Something like this: who needs political parties when CASH IS KING<\/span>.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t think it can\u2019t eventually happen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let me start by repeating the obvious: this is a big year for national politics. It\u2019s already off to a roaring start, given the interesting outcomes of the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary. By the end of this week, two more states will add their results into the presidential candidate mix (Michigan and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=309"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5362,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309\/revisions\/5362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimgworld.com\/blog1\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}