President Number 45

Warsaw, IN – The presidential race for 2016 is any minute now. Any minute if you mean that Election Day is still over two years away. But already many on both left and the right have expressed interest in the race.

There has been much talk and positioning, and already fund raising and web site preparation. By the numbers, if popularity polls are to be trusted, congress as a whole is not popular, its approval rating standing at only 13%. This has led some to say that we can expect no serious presidential candidates from that section. Although it is highly possible that the nation views this as a whole, but will be more forgiving to the separate members come election time.

There are of course several governors who have expressed interest. Bobby Jindal possibly, along with Rick Perry of Texas, and Christ Christie of New Jersey, who, according to a recent poll is at 10%, despite allegations that he shut down lanes leading to the busiest bridge on the planet as a form of political payback for a mayor who did not endorse him in his bid for reelection.

However, besides the inner party interests, such as whether vice president Joe Biden will run, which he will announce in the summer of next year, is not at interesting as which party has a better shot at getting one of their people into the position of “leader of the free world.”

Some have said that people will not want a Republican as president because they shut down the government last year for seventeen days, costing the economy millions. But there is a statistic about the Democratic Party that they have never once beaten.

The only time a Modern Democrat has ever followed a Democrat was when he was already an incumbent. That was Lyndon Banes Johnston following JFK and Harry Truman following FDR. Both of their predecessors had died in office, making these men incumbents. These are the only time it has happened.

But we are still two years away. There are many things that could happen. “One year is an eternity in politics.” Just about anything could happen. So that, no matter what predictions are made now, and no matter what has held true in the past, anything could still change. America really has no idea who will be president number 45.

Andrew C. Abbott