Historic year for presidential politics
I’m often asked where and how I get my ideas for ‘My Turn.’ The short answer is I write about what interests me, and hope it will interest others too. Fortunately, my interests are pretty wide-ranging, from international and national politics, to state and local issues and events.
With 2008 being a potentially history-making year for presidential politics, I’m blessed with a plethora of personalities and issues to comment on. For example, this is the first time since 1928 that no sitting president or vice president is running for president. It is also the first time both a black man and a white woman appear to be serious contenders for the highest office in the land.
Whether voters will actually send a black man or a white woman to the White House remains a very open question. Still, it makes for all kinds of discussion, debate and analysis. Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton continue to duke it out in the primaries and caucuses in the run-up to Super Tuesday come Feb. 5. The race and gender cards are already on the table, played mostly by surrogates, but lately in subtle and not so subtle ways by the candidates themselves.
In a perfect world, race and gender wouldn’t matter in politics ‘ and my dogs would love my cat. However, here in the world, they do matter. How much they matter will become clearer as the Democratic candidates continue to slog their way through the primaries and caucuses on their way to the Democratic National Convention.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are not bothered by issues of race or gender ‘ for now at least. Their frontrunners are white males. Their problem is settling on which white male they want to be their party’s nominee. So far, their primaries and caucuses have produced three winners: former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Arizona Sen. John McCain, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani is pinning his hopes on kick-starting his campaign with a big win in Florida. If his ‘Florida First’ strategy works, he will be hailed as a political genius. If it doesn’t, he could be gone from the race, though probably not before Super Tuesday.
Former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson dropped out of the race last Tuesday. Apparently, his distant third-place finish in South Carolina was the last dose of reality he needed to see his chances for winning the nomination are two-slim and none.
In some ways, Thompson may have been his own worst enemy in the race. He started late, but with high expectations from those who saw him as the ‘new Ronald Reagan.’ Viewed objectively, he was no such thing. Compared to Reagan, Thompson was, and is, a political neophyte.
Still, many Republicans and others were willing to see if Fred the man (as opposed to Fred the myth) could rise to the occasion and mount a credible campaign. That he failed to do so may say something about him, but probably much more about the chaotic state of the Republican Party in 2008.
Retired Army Col. Thomas B. Vaughn can be reached by e-mail at tbvbwmi@blomand.net.