| As far as Democrats go, I think that John Kerry had his chance already and lost, so doubt if the party will re-run him. Al Gore did get a lot more of the popular vote then Bush did during the his last bid for office, but lost the electro votes in Fla. (by close margin) so that might be a choice but he refused to run last time and no doubt will not toss his hat into the ring next time around. Mrs Clinton has not deomonstrated a lot of strong leadership potentials as yet, and the idea that Bill would be living in the White House again might not set right with voters over-all, so I do not see that happening, and as pointed out, not many Democrats are offering much of a different platform then the republicans so I do not see how any of the "household names" would make the grade with the voting public. And the Democrats are a bit famous for bringing relatively unknowns to the fore front during election season.
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However this debate is orignally asking the question about how the Republican Party can alter their image so distance their self from the bad image that voters now have concerning Bush and his group of people in Washington.
The only one I know in the Republican camp that is able to regenerate new platforms and self images would be Anorld of California, and he is a great speaker and could be popular with voters outside of California. However he was not born in the USA and so cannot run for office of President under current law.
Now Bob McCain might fit be the one, at times he was not in agreement with Bush and he let the news media know it. He could rev up more differences but the bottom line is that he is really not all that different, he still fits the 'standard mold' if you dig stereotyping. His best bet would be to offer a much milder version of Bush-sim. But I do not see that in this nature so don't know if he could pull off such a deception.
The real question here is, what would Republicans like to see different in their platform, that would alter what Bush has offered during his terms in office. |