Life after Bush: Who'll be President in 2008?

Now that the Bush-Kerry battle of a few months ago is firmly confined to the ages, love him or loathe him, we have to put up with good ol' George Dubya for the next 4 years.

Of course, the good news for all the Bush haters out there is that 2004 was his last Presidential election, which begs the question: Who'll be President of the United States after Bush finishes his 2 terms?

There's no shortage of candidates, that's for sure. Even though the last election only took place a few months ago, prospective candidates are coming out of the woodwork in an attempt to succeed President Bush. Starting with Bush's own Republican Party, the party most commonly associated with Southern and Mid-Western white voters, conservatives and big business, some high-profile candidates are throwing their hat in the ring. Ex-Mayor of New York, Rudy Guiliani, the man responsible for seeing New York through the 9/11 disaster, is considered a strong candidate, but may be considered "too liberal" by the majority of conservatives in the party.

Current Mayor of New York and multi-billionaire, Michael Bloomberg, is also considering running, but might not have the vote-getting power required to become the 44th President. Governor of Massachussets Mitt Romney and Chairman of the Republican committee Rick Santorum from Pennsylvania are also in the mix, but both are lacking somewhat in charisma.

So far, the candidates I've mentioned all come from "blue states", that means they come from states that almost never vote Republican in Presidential elections (Democrat John Kerry won New York, Massachussets and Pennsylvania in the November elections) Of course, there are plenty of prospective Presidents in the states that do vote Republican as well ("red states").

For instance, there's Dan Quayle from Indiana. You may remember him as the older George Bush's Vice President between 1989 and 1993. He was a figure of fun for most of that term but considering he spelt the word "potato" with an 'e' at the end and thought that Latin was the first language of Latin America, it's a small wonder. Bill Frist from Tennessee looks a strong candidate, he's currently the leader of the Republican Party in the Senate and his term of office ends rather conveniently in 2006, giving him plenty of time to prepare should he enter the race.

The "swing states" (states that are almost evenly split between Democrat and Republican) have their fair share of decent candidates too, Governor Robert Taft is most definitely an outside bet, but he is Governor of the State that won Bush the election (Ohio) and a speech he delivered days before was highly influential in getting undecided voters to go with Bush.

The final candidate is Jeb Bush, Governor of Florida, the state that won his brother the election in 2000 (under mysterious circumstances, I might add). He's super-duper conservative, considerably smarter than big bro George (although some would argue that it wouldn't be hard) and is considered the next big thing from the Bush dynasty. He says he won't run in 2008, but I wouldn't take that as Gospel just yet...
 
As for the Democrats, the party most commonly associated with urban, Northern and minority voters with a more liberal outlook, one name stands out amongst the rest: Hillary Clinton, current Senator of New York. She is well known as the most active First Lady in history when Bill was in power and is widely respected around the world, especially Ireland. Given she does decide to run, she'll be the first woman in history to run for the Presidency, a fact which could win her votes amongst women in red states who would normally vote Republican.

Another good candidate is Evan "How do you pronounce your second name" Bayh, from Indiana. Bayh is considered a very strong candidate, for his approachability, his excellent political record and most importantly his appeal to Southern voters. John Kerry may yet run again, as the 2004 race won him a wide range of supporters around the country, as might Howard Dean, who ran for the Democratic nomination against Kerry, but blew his chances when he blew a gasket during a speech in Iowa. The only black Senator in the Senate currently, Barack Obama, would be a very popular choice for President or Vice President but has insisted he will not run.

Whatever happens in the next phase of the Bush administration, the range of candidates to take over from him guarantees that 2008 will be a very interesting year indeed...

By: Patrick Duffy

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