Who will succeed George W Bush?

[T_i_B]

Yes I know this is a bit of a stereotypical thread for this forum but it's an interesting article!

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2152839.ece

The suave former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney appears at a Boston convention centre for a public fundraising extravaganza that nets a cool $6.5m (£3.3m) in a single business day. Democrat Barack Obama appears at a party dinner in New Hampshire, as if he were the second coming. Oh yes, and a supposedly secret internal strategy document of the Rudolph Giuliani campaign appears on the front page of a New York tabloid - courtesy of a source "sympathetic to one of Giuliani's rivals for the White House". Need more be said? The biggest, costliest and most unpredictable political show on the planet is getting under way in earnest.

The first votes that actually count in the struggle to succeed George W Bush will only be cast on 14 January 2008, when Iowa holds its caucuses. But the action is already coming thick and fast, despite the fact that the most important of the expected candidates - Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democrats, Giuliani and John McCain for the Republicans - have yet to formally declare.

For the first time since 1928, no incumbent President or Vice-President is seeking his party's nomination. Come 20 January 2009, America might find itself inaugurating its first black president, its first female president, even (if Romney goes all the way) its first Mormon president. For now, suffice to say, the country may be facing its most turbulent election cycle since 1968.

The comparisons with 1968 are striking (assassinations excepted, one prays). Now, as then, America is embroiled in an unpopular war, and led by an unpopular President (with the difference that Bush, unlike Lyndon Johnson, is barred from running again). That election ended 36 years of Democratic dominance; 2008 could end an even longer era of Republican supremacy. Now as then, the limits of American military power abroad have been exposed - but with added uncertainty now about the limits of American economic power, threatened by debt, deficit and fast-growing powers like China and India. According to statistics, the US is becoming more prosperous, but rarely have people worried as much about their jobs, schools, healthcare and general standard of living.

[acmavm]

1. Please, please, please, please, (to quote James Brown)...

<snip>
That election ended 36 years of Democratic dominance; 2008 could end an even longer era of Republican supremacy.
<snip>

[Deep13]

2. Anyone who willingly inherits this mess,...

...is too stupid or insane to be president.

[intaglio]

3. Bet Georgie thinks Jenna or Barbra

... after all they're first in line if succession to the thone

[Imagevision]

4. It will never be a republican -- Repugs always start the wars, Dems always finish them except this

mess got this bad with the help of American big biz interests. How many decades will it take to get this country in better shape, Bush served his purpose!

[dsc]

5. That isn't even close to true

Both World Wars started and ended during Democratic Administrations. Korea stared under a Dem and ended under the GOP. Vietnam did start under the GOP but also ended under the GOP.

[ClintonTyree]

6. Anyone will look like a success compared to Bush....

the worst president ever. Any 16 year old fry cook from McDonalds could do a much better job.

As to who actually succeeds him, I hope it's Al Gore. He seems to be the most intelligent person available and we're going to need a freaking genius to get us out of all the messes Bush has gotten us into.

[Fovea]

7. For raw intellectual horsepower, Gore is the best choice.

For Veep, he needs someone who doesn't mind presiding over the demolishing of NeoCon power structures such as kstreet/think tanks/media, and the American koretsu of Energy/weaponry/security/and pharma.

Who is the meanest legal attack dog on the block?
J. Edwards
R. Kennedy Jr.
Henry Waxman
John Conyers


Politics from here to the new progressive majority will be a two fighter cage match tag team, and the Veep needs to be smart, capable, and a bit like the field agent in The Sum of All Fears. We need to do the people's business, and kneecap anyone who drags at our coattails.

[harveyc]

8. Whom ever it is ...

is going to be in one hell of a mess in Iraq, unless our leaders in Congress don't step up now to stop the supplemental for the Iraq war in February.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. No one! They broke the mold!

There can never be a successor to Wee* Georgie! We're going to have to start all over with a renamed office. Presidentist, or something like that. That will be someone who, to fix the country, will have to do things that will feel like having teeth pulled.


* I used to call him Little Georgie, but he just kept getting smaller.