Monday 3 September 2018

Who is going to run against Trump in 2020?

From Donald Trump's perspective, the chance of being relected for a second term probably looks pretty good. Not because his leadership and policies are so successful that every voter in the land will make the decision he is the best man for another four years. But because the Democrats are coming up with a host of most unlikely candidates to fight him. Joe Biden is near the top of the list of possibles. But this is a man who said he wanted to be president, then he said he wouldn't go for the 2016 nomination because his son tragically died of cancer, but went through a period of not being sure and now he seems to think 2020 is the one to go for. But he will be 77 by then. Surely the US needs a younger man at the helm, especially after Trump? Then there's Senator Elizabeth Warren, a smart woman no question but she will be 71 in 2020. Senator Bernie Sanders wants to have another go. But Bernie shot his bolt the last time round when he was rival to Hillary Clinton. I have stood up close to Bernie Sanders in the White House Park when he was beng interviewed for a television programme and he seemed, to me, to be a very ordinary person, lacking in charisma and certainly lacking presidential qualities. There's a string of others, such as Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Senator Kamala Harris of California, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and New York governor Andrew Cuomo. But none of them are inspiring candidates. And now there is one more potential candidate, John Kerry, an energetic secretary of state under Barack Obama, and failed presidential candidate, beaten by George W in 2004. I like Kerry, I thought he was a good secretary of state, a very tall imposing man who, if nothing else, would look like a president. But he will be nearly 76 when the election is running. Trump has already laughed him off as a rival, attacking him for being the archtect of what he sees as the disastrous 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. Despite his age, I would vote for Kerry if I were an American citizen, unless some young inspiring politician steps forward. I am still holding out hopes for Joaquin Castro, the 43-year-old Democratic congressman for Texas. But then that's because it would be so bizarre to have a President Castro running the United States!

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