President Hilary Clinton?

hillary clinton, former first lady to president bill clinton, has officially put her hat into the rat race that is the u.s. presidency. with a giant war chest and her husband by her side, ms. clinton is considered the front runner for the democratic nomination. senator barack obama and john edwards are the next best contenders. it was quite a sneaky move of hers to announce just days after obama did, thereby effectively cutting off any momentum or publicity that obama could have taken advantage of.

with ms. clinton trying to become the first female president, and with obama trying to establish himself as the first black president, the 2008 presidential race has become the most politically diverse ever. also, throw in edwards attempting to be the first eternal manchild president, and you've got a pretty interesting next two years.

no one is doubting ms. clinton's political abilities, especially after having won two landslide victories in new york and being able to convince voters even in the conservative upstate region that she would represent them effectively in washington. the problem with ms. clinton is her polarizing effect. people either love her or hate her. that being said, i am not overly fond of her myself. and the other issue is her gender.

we can't ignore this issue, because it has already been made an issue by the media. is the united states ready for a female president? gender issues are almost as volatile as race issues, but i'm going to go out on a limb and say that i don't know if ms. clinton can win the election. i would almost think that a black president is more likely before a female president. but since the two issues are so intense, and because the united states has proven to be... unpredictable when it comes to forward thinking (let's face it, the last 6 years haven't been too hot for social progress in the united states), it's almost a toss up as to which president they would embrace more.

i'm not saying that gender is everything, that if ms. clinton loses, it will be because of her gender: quite the opposite. i think if she does lose, it will be more due to her politics. but gender is still an issue. if it wasn't, you'd have seen a female president a long time ago.

then there's john edwards. he would be the safe, bland choice. not that he's not qualified, because he is, and i think he's actually a pretty good guy, but more because the democrats just wiped the floor with the republicans in the midterm elections. they are on the cusp of a new democratic revolution, in the way the republicans took over in 1994. a democratic presidency would seal the deal. how much are they willing to gamble? perhaps they will go the safe route. but they went the safe route with john kerry and look how that turned out. all in all though, i wouldn't be too surprised of edwards pulls it off. it's a long battle, and anything can happen.

finally, i used to think it didn't matter who was president, or which party they were from, especially as of late, as both parties tend to move towards the middle for power. at times, they seemed like the exact same party. just talking heads with different colors. george w. bush sort of changed things. how one man could do so much damage without paying a price for any of it is mind boggling.

it would be nice if the american people actually chose an elitist next time around. and by elitist, i don't mean someone who is purely for the rich minority, but someone who is smarter than the average person. the word "elite" has gotten a bad rap as of late, but after seeing the short sighted idiocy of the last six years, why not go the opposite way? go for someone smarter, someone who will actually take time to think things through. who you want as a president shouldn't necessarily be someone that you'd want to be able to play playstation with, if you know what i mean.

it'll be an interesting two years.

(source)