WASHINGTON: A third President from the Bush family or a second one from the Clinton family could well be the dynastic choice facing the 2016 electorate of the United States, the most talked-up democracy in the world.
Jeb Bush, the former governor of Florida, son of the 41st US President George Bush and brother of the 43rd President George "Dubya" Bush, announced on Tuesday that he will "actively explore" the possibility of running for President of the United States in 2016.
In a social media posting, Bush said he had discussed the future of the nation with his family over "good food and a whole lot of football" during the holidays, and "as a result of these conversations and thoughtful consideration of the kind of strong leadership I think America needs, I have decided to actively explore the possibility of running for President of the United States."
In a preliminary step, he said he plans to establish a Leadership PAC in January that will help him "facilitate conversations with citizens across America to discuss the most critical challenges facing our exceptional nation."
It now remains to be seen if Hillary Clinton will follow suit, leading up to a second Bush vs Clinton election after Bill Clinton defeated George Bush Sr in 1992. Clinton has been dithering for months on whether to run.
Not that it is going to be smooth sailing for either candidate in the party primaries where they will have to overcome other aspirants. Bush will have to get past Mitt Romney, who wants to take another crack at the White House in 2016. Clinton will have to overcome Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has emerged as the darling of the liberal wing of the Democratic Party.
There are a raft of other aspirants. From the Republican side, notably, governors Chris Christie of New Jersey, Rick Perry of Texas, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, and senators Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio. From the Democratic side vice-president Joe Biden, former governors Martin O'Malley and Andrew Cuomo among others.
But it is a Bush-Clinton face-off that most animates political pundits and pollsters, which is rather astonishing for a country that boasts of being the world's premier democracy.
Even the Bush matriarch, the 41st president's wife Barbara, once observed that America can do better than stick to the same dynastic families.
Maintaining that America had seen enough Bushes in the White House, she had said in an interview that "If we can't find more than two or three families to run for office, that's silly, because there are great governors and great eligible people to run."
"And I think that the Kennedys, Clintons, Bushes — there are just more families than that. And I'm not arrogant enough to think that we alone are raising" presidential candidates," she added. Expressing reservations about a Jeb Bush run, she had also joked that he would get all the Bush parent's enemies, and also his brother's enemies.
Going by Jeb Bush's claim that his decision was arrived at after discussions during a family get together, he has overcome his mother's reservations.
By some accounts, either a Bush and/or Clinton ran for president or was on a presidential ticket in 80, 84, 88, 92 (both), 96, 00, 04, and 08. After a break in 2012, they're back.
After keeping mum about their relationship for quite sometime, both Anushka and Virat agreed to their relationship, refusing to divulge details and make it entertainment news. Here's an account of what their romance looked like.
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