It’s 2006, and voters know what that means: Less than two years until it’s time to do it all over again.
The 2008 presidential elections promise to bring a slew of new faces to a White House that has been the source of extensive critique, and praise, for more than five years. How the Republican Party intends to deflect criticisms about faulty wartime intelligence and government buffoonery regarding Hurricane Katrina, and how the Democratic party intends to present itself as a force unified for reasons besides an anti-Bush stance, are queries that will surely play out as both groups decide which candidates they think will best win the votes of U.S. citizens.
Senator John McCain has been the name on Republican tongues for some time now in regards to the 2008 election. After losing to Bush in the 2000 presidential primaries, it appeared for some time as though McCain was taking a step away from the Republican Party he had once campaigned so vigorously to represent. McCain was touted as a moderate in 2004, when it looked for a brief time as though John Kerry was in the process of courting McCain into the vice-presidential candidacy. In the past two months, McCain has publicly commented on his belief that Bush’s recent wiretapping program is an illegal form of domestic surveillance and criticized the federal government for Iraq’s current oil revenues, which are lower now than before the U.S. invasion occurred.
However, McCain is by no means the potential, moderate presidential candidate who has the power to appeal to Republicans and Democrats alike. McCain has continually showed approval for the Bush administration’s decision to invade Iraq. Furthermore, McCain is already reaching out to key Republicans who once voted Bush into office. If McCain hopes to rally support from social conservatives, there is no question that McCain’s status as a moderate politician will begin to swing closer to the right.
For the Democratic party, it seems that 2008 may be a throwback to politics of the past. John Kerry has spoken on and off about another try at the Oval Office, but the big name in candidacy is Hillary Rodham Clinton. Although she has given no definitive answer to the question of running for president, no one in the nation would be surprised to see the ex-first lady vying for a place at the helm of the nation.
Senator Clinton has been privy to more than her share of insulting media coverage, a fact that it is hoped will not deter her from at least considering a presidential candidacy. The United States might remember Clinton best for her role as jilted wife in the Monica Lewinsky scandal, but the fact remains that Clinton is first and foremost a politician. After attending Yale Law School and practicing law for a number of years, Clinton in 2000 won the New York Senate election; cementing her place in U.S. politics.
Clinton is certainly a Democrat, but a moderate one at that. Her desire to increase army numbers and decrease tax cuts are two stances that appeal to a broad range of
Democratic party members. Unlike Howard Dean, Clinton can win the votes of conservative Democrats; unlike John Kerry, Clinton has the charisma and human interest to carry a campaign that will not be easily dismissed or forgotten come election day.
Lesser known, potential presidential candidates include Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on the Republican side, and Senator Joe Biden of Delaware on the Democratic side. Both of these men are traditional presidential candidates – long term participants in their respective parties, with general belief systems that reflect their leanings to the right and the left. Frist has spoken up in
favor of the Patriot Act, and Biden was commended by Democrats for his vocal questioning of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Frist is in favor of a constitutional amendment limiting marriage to heterosexual unions; Biden presently takes the position that the pre-emptive strike in Iraq was a bad decision.
For the sake of political interest across the nation, one can only hope that the presidential race will indeed come down to McCain and Clinton. Rather than again seeing two older, white men battle out their respective party platitudes, it would be refreshing if questions of gender, and whether a two-party system can ever truly produce a moderate politician, were addressed. The United States is ready to move on from the ballot fiascoes and ho-hum candidacies of the past half-decade. When the 2008 race finally begins, it is hoped that the nation can look forward to novel people and novel debates as the defining feature of U.S. election politics.
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