2008 President

Last week we took a look at the upcoming Quadrennial Orgy of presidential politics from the Democrats’ perspective. Now it is the Republicans’ turn to be run over by the Crystal Ball. There isn’t a GOP candidate out there who isn’t happy November 2008 is over 22 months away. You wouldn’t need a political analyst to forecast the results of the race for the White House if the election were scheduled in the next half year. With Iraq seeming like a world-class disaster, and President Bush owning that disaster, Las Vegas wouldn’t even be taking bets except on the size of the Democratic victory–assuming Democrats nominated even a moderately electable candidate. But the election isn’t in 2007, and amazingly, despite the oddsmakers, the GOP contest is actually attracting more contenders than the Democrats. Compare the two party lists: DEMOCRATS Apparently Definite (9) Name Current/Prior Experience Joe Biden current U.S. Senator from Delaware Hillary Clinton current U.S. Senator from New York Chris Dodd current U.S. Senator from Connecticut John Edwards former U.S. Senator from North Carolina Mike Gravel former U.S. Senator from Alaska Dennis Kucinich current U.S. Congressman from Ohio Barack Obama current U.S. Senator from Illinois Bill Richardson current governor

And so it has begun–if you don’t count the twenty-six months that candidates have already been organizing for the 2008 presidential contest. The nation’s 55th consecutive election for President is well under way. Presidential campaigns are endless and continuous now, with the next one starting the day after the previous one ends. But there’s no doubt we’re already in the thick of things, with a “mere” twelve months to go before the first real votes are cast in Iowa next January. In some sense it has always been this way. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson were quietly maneuvering to succeed President George Washington years before our first Chief Executive stepped down. In the old days, though, the salons and supper parties served as the primaries, and they were rarely covered in print. The citizenry got a long respite between campaigns. No longer. Let’s state the obvious up front: Two years before the Inauguration, even Nostradamus would have a hard time picking the winner; we won’t even bother to try. No one can know the atmospherics that will prevail a year from now for the party preliminaries, much less in the autumn of 2008. Closer to the time, we’ll join the