The Next President…

 

The thought of this topic scares me to death.  I often wonder who will be the next president of the good ole’ U.S. of A.  Will it be a democrat or a republican?  I guess the answer to that depends on three things.  First, who gets the nominations from their respective parties.   My worry is that the Republicans do not seem to have a strong candidate.  In fact recent polls have said that if the election were held today none of the Republican candidates can beat any of the Democrat candidates.  Even current “republican” front-runner Rudy Giuliani trails Hilary, Obama, and even Al Gore.  The way I see it the race for the Democrat nomination is slightly less complicated.  It comes down to Clinton and Obama, with Tree Hugging Gore holding a chance if enters the race.  My prediction is Clinton will be the one nominated.  Who will she face?  I’d say there are only a few options.  It will come down to Rudy G and Fred Thompson (Sorry McCain and Romney).   The question the Republicans need to answer is which of those guys has the most chance at beating Billary?

    Personally, I like Fred Thompson.  He is a fromer Senator and Law and Order star, a member of the church of Christ, and fairly conservative.  He has likeability.  He has the potential to be a Ronald Reagan like fella’.  My fear is many people are so displeased with Bush that a conservative has no chance.  However, I doubt the Hollywood liberal base would move as quickly against Thompson as they did Bush.  I hope Rudy doesn’t get it.  He might as well strap the word “liberal” on his head.  He is pro gun control (sorry Mr. Heston).  He is pro choice.  He is pro civil unions.  He may get the moderate vote, but don’t forget that there really is a huge Christian conservative base in America still and I believe they will move like we have never seen to stand against Hillary and to support a guy like Thompson.  Oh, how life would change if old Newt would just come to the rescue. 

      Second, the running mate is a key issue more so in ’08 than usual.  I look for a strong combination of Clinton and Obama from the Democrats.  Can the Republicans match the strength of that?  How would a Thompson/Giuliani combo fair?  I have also heard chatter about someone like Condi Rice being a running mate.  That may negate some of the votes that Clinton will get from being a black female, oh waith she’s not black is she?  I hope the Republican will be smart enough to throw in a solid VP candidate that can maybe help swing some of the minority vote or the blue state vote.  Rudy may be equally as good of a running mate as Condi. 

       The third issue that will determine who is the next President is the issues themselves.  A poll I saw on Hannity.com polled the issues that people saw as most important.  Number one on the list was Immigration at 45%, number two was the war on terror at 32%.  Homeland security followed with 12% and then came the abortion issue at just over 2%.  I still say that this social issues will be a big issue this election, but look for the immigration issue to be huge.  Also, I think deep down the liberal voters don’t want to tuck tail and run in Iraq, so the war on terror will be big as well.  Don’t fear yet my conservative friends, Hillary is sure to do something stupid before the election showing her true colors and the Democrat led congress is sure to blow up in their face and show America how incompetent they are to run the country. It’s not over for the Republicans in ’08 and that’s just the way it is. 

I’m interested to hear what you think.  Post a message and share what your ’08 election predictions might be.