2016: Two Familiar Names Have the Edge -- Again!
Are you ready for Clinton vs. Bush 2.0? My earlier prediction that Jeb will face Hillary in 2016 is looking more certain than ever.
Sure, in theory the conventional wisdom says that voters want to see some fresh and new names at the top of their ballots. But in practice, history tells us that voters and campaign donors just love to bring the old names back again and again.
Hence the air of inevitability around former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, as potential competitors like Vice President Joe Biden or Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts show remarkably little appetite for that fight -- especially with her already miles ahead of them in polls.
Republican hopes for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to throw his sombrero in the ring received an unexpected boost last Sunday when his son George P. Bush told ABC's "This Week" that Daddy Jeb was "more than likely" to join what almost has become the Bush family business: running for president.
"I think it's more than likely that he's giving this a serious thought," said the younger Bush, who also happens to be running for Texas land commissioner, "and moving forward."
That's the spirit. I know it is popular to say that the public is tired of the Bushes and Clintons. Even former First Lady Barbara Bush was moved to complain in a C-SPAN interview this year, "If we can't find more than two or three families to run for high office, that's silly. I refuse to accept that this great country isn't raising other wonderful people."
Yet this great country, despite our ritualistic denunciations of dynasties, has put the Bushes and Clintons up with the Kennedys, Roosevelts and Rockefellers among those families to whom we frequently turn to save ourselves the chore of having to learn about new people.
Like Mrs. Clinton, Jeb Bush says he'll make up his mind at the end of the year. He played down his son's statement in a quickie NBC News interview Wednesday (Oct. 29) with "He's got an opinion, he didn't talk to me" -- which is what a lot of us parents could say about our kids.
The GOP field already is getting crowded with ambitious presidential wannabe's. Yet, at this point, there's not a gusher of passion for any of the known hopefuls. A September CBS/New York Times poll found 79 percent of Republican voters couldn't name a candidate they were enthusiastic about.
Of those who could, Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, topped the list with only 6 percent, followed by Christie with 4 percent.
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