By Elliott Brack, editor and publisher | The year before national elections always seems much more interesting than the election year itself.
So here we are in 2015, smack in the run-up to the election. And can’t you say the political stories are mighty interesting this year? However, the first quarter of next year, we may know who the two major candidates are, and from then on out, it will be more of the same over and over until the voting. That’s usually not as interesting as the many twists and turns this year to see who continues to be a candidate, And we have already seen one of the candidates, Rick Perry, dropping out of the race.
The major news in 2015 has been centered on two fronts.
First, Donald Trump continues make news nearly each day on the Republican side, as he twists and turns and cajoles and grabs headlines in making himself the leader among the many polls. Say what you will about him, he knows how to get
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attention. And those poor other (15 now) candidates are lost in finding a way to center attention on their candidacies.
What looked like a good run for Scott Walker and others now seems more doubtful to their candidacies, all because of the hard-to-predict and sometimes boorish manner by which Trump campaigns.
We can’t see him leading the country. Another outsider who burst onto the national scene, Ronald Reagan, at least had political victories under his belt as the governor of California. Our Georgia outsider, Jimmy Carter, also had experience as a governor.
But Trump? Now we are beginning to wonder if he will be a viable candidate. It could spell the doom, or the resurgence, of the GOP. You shudder to think how Trump would seek to govern. You can almost see his relationship with Congress in shambles!
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The second front, on the Democratic side, is interesting this year because the obvious leader, Hillary Clinton, can’t seem to get out of one tight spot after the other. Having no obvious opponent with national prominence, still she continues to move down in the polling, not being away to distance herself from recriminations. Some party regulars now openly talk about the possibility that she may not emerge as the nominee.
We are among those who have questioned if she will be the nominee. Each day one small question after another erupts, each little blimp pointing downward for her candidacy. One headline labeled her efforts a “swoon,” further indicating problems.
Then this week we hear that a computer that Mrs. Clinton used had not been “wiped,” with the possibility that some of her emails may be retrieved. Should this happen, and some of those emails turn out to be dealing with national security items on her personal computer, her candidacy may be doomed.
If so, who will emerge as the Democratic possibility? Bernie Sanders now is closest to Mrs. Clinton in the polls. While it seems unreasonable that an avowed Socialist would be chosen by the Democrats as the nominee, look what happened in Britain! The new leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is a leftist and political outsider, one most would never have thought would become the party leader.
And Joseph Biden may not have the zest for the campaign, plus his age is a drawback. Who’s left? Some want to mention former Senator Jim Webb as one possibility. Others, many with their own problems, await on the sidelines.
With all this brewing, it’s obvious that 2015 is a mighty interesting political year.
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