The Next President of the United States of America Part 1

Around the middle of August, I made my first prediction about the presidential race. When I decided to post my thoughts on the election, I assumed you would be more interested in who I think will win and why. With that in mind, I had to weed out two viable candidates from the vast fields and make a final choice. This is not an easy task as there are some real strong candidates on both sides. Considering the length of my analysis, I decided to cut down the level of detail I used to explain my positions, and split this into a few different posts. The hardest part was eliminating the top tier candidates on both sides. In once case it was almost impossible to eliminate a candidate as he could, and more importantly, should get his parties nomination.

In this post, I decided to eliminate the candidates that we should not waste time with. I also decided I should reduce the major contenders on the Democrats side. Except for one candidate, I feel all of the Democrats are second tier material. Therefore I will not waste time with most of them. Let's start by removing Bill Richardson, Dennis Kucinich, Joe Biden, Mike Gravel, and Chris Dodd. In all honesty, there is no chance that any of these men can compete with the front runners for the Democrat nomination. Moving on…

Now we can weed out the other major Democrat contenders starting with Barack Obama. Barack just does not have the experience needed to be successful in a general election, never mind the Presidency. He seems to have a major issue with the stress related to public forums such as debates. Though he is great at rallying people while giving a speech that does not include feedback, he does not seem to handle direct questioning well. Barack gets flustered and losses his eloquence when he is faced with a difficult question. How can you lead the "free world" if you can not handle the lime light of a debate? Further, he seems to know what issues he should talk about, but Barack does not seem to have a solid answer to anything. I have frequently listened to him highlight some major political issues without giving his solution. On the rare occasion that he give a solution to a problem, his ideas reek of inexperience. He has often retracted his statements by altering his viewpoint or stating that he did not mean what he said. On the other hand, if Barack is going to make a serious run for the nomination, he needs to change his approach. Unless Obama starts chipping away at Hillary and her policies to weaken her stance, how can he compete with the "Clinton Machine." As of late, Obama has been more aggressive with Hillary, but I can't help but wonder if it is too little too late. Obama may have enough time to get a good foot hold on the nomination, but he may be cutting it too close. This is not to say Obama does not have potential at this moment, but I do not think his potential is going to blossom during this election. He may have staying power, but he is not a great threat to Hillary or, more importantly, the Republicans. Obama is going to be a force to recon with in a few years, but for now, he needs to get his political legs beneath him so he can stand against the Republican in the General election.

As far as John Edwards, I don't really know what to say except that his voting populace seems to be a very specific type of Democrat that is a bit further to the left than independents feel comfortable with. I may be wrong, but he doesn't seem to know where the middle is and Democrats need the independent vote as much as the Republicans. Obama and Clinton are the only two that I can see who could sway the independent vote, each for different reasons. I wish I could be more descriptive with John Edwards, but there really is not much to say. He does not have any realistic strong standpoints, no viable policy, and can not compete with Hillary (or Bills) charisma. My final point is the most important; Democrats are intelligent, no matter what a Conservative says. Therefore, John Edwards will not win the nomination because Democrats know he can not win a general election.

… and the nominee is … Hillary Clinton