Searching for 2024 candidates
American presidents are supposed to tackle and solve major, national problems. It is on that basis that they are judged and considered on a historical basis to have been great, a placeholder, undistinguished or a failure for not having met the demands of the country during their tenure.
Washington launched us, Jefferson took advantage of the opportunity to expand, Jackson met the need for solid financial infrastructure, Lincoln dealt with the moral stain of divisive slavery and Wilson drove in the stakes of America’s military role in the world.
Each of these presidents more or less dealt with the problems that confronted the nation during his time and then passed on. Not Donald Trump, and it is thus remarkable that we are now facing the possibility that he will be bringing to us in 2024 — and between now and then — the return to the screen of his destructive period in office, a Freddy Krueger as president.
In January 2020, he was brought the specter of the coronavirus. In place of welcoming the early warning and starting the necessary measures to deal with the challenge to the well-being of the country, Mr. Trump, afraid that he would get blamed for it and not knowing what to do or whom to ask, hid what he knew and let the storm descend on us. Now he is out of office and should just retire to Mar-a-Lago, not pulling the Republican Party under the waves with him.
We need a serious second party. We are not a comfortable one-party state. I hate to think what easy opening of the door will lead to in terms of who thinks he or she could be president, based on Mr. Trump’s rise and performance in office.
Sofar no one has wrecked the car, although Richard Nixon did his best and Mr. Trump did his best with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The other so-far piece of good luck is that none of the other nations that are contestants for great world power is mounting a serious assault on us in spite of our vulnerability through division.
So who will be the viable presidential candidates in 2024 if not Mr. Trump?
President Joe Biden will want another term, but is likely to be deemed too old. Hillary Rodham Clinton will have lots of money behind her, but she had her shot, lost, and is not likely to run again in 2024 in spite of logic.
In terms of preparation to govern a big nation like the United States, the two most qualified candidates will be Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California. Mr. Cuomo risks being too banged up by scandals that are underway right now. Americans will probably be too tired of such things post-Trump and that could give the tip to Mr. Newsom. He can claim the crown of Ronald Reagan as a former governor of California, even though he can’t claim the ideological heft of the amiable dunce of other years.
So who wins? I have to put my money on Mr. Newsom. Just as voters supported Mr. Trump hopefully in 2016, as new, they will probably go for Sunny California in 2024. Of course, it will to some degree depend on what happens in the meantime.
There is still room in the contest for someone even vaguely inspirational like Barack Obama to emerge and sweep the field, although it is hard to see him or her among a somewhat tarnished, used field.
Could anyone with a straight face put forward one of these senators or governors and expect us to take the candidate seriously, knowing what we know about him or her? It’s sad, really. We are probably doomed to a Millard Fillmore or a Franklin Pierce this time around.
Although if someone throws another curveball like coronavirus, all bets are off. Until the virus is put to sleep, Americans are not going to be able to focus on future elections and candidates in any case. Let’s hope we’ll be spared a critical election while the virus is still at large.