I just thought that I would try to be a bit more productive and put together an actual first-pass list of people. I’m largely just scraping people together from leadership in large government-related organizations, who are under 60. I’m not looking at them in any depth, at the moment:
Got bored there, but I can probably add as many names as anyone feels are necessary.
It has always seemed odd to me that Cabinet posts aren’t a rich source of Presidential nominees. If you think about it, running a Cabinet office is the same sort of work that running all the cabinets is, just on one rung down the ladder. You get to show how good you are at organizing a few thousand people, articulating your agenda and beliefs in public, ginning up support in Congress, etc., everything a President does, but on a smaller scale. Other than Herbert Hoover, though, Cabinet positions seem like a dead end to the presidency.
You don’t build up a base of support like a Governor or Senator from a state can. And most people don’t really know what a Cabinet Secretary really does aside from Secretary of State or Defense (how many people know how Antony Blinken or Lloyd Austin are) and even there it seems like they are carrying out the President’s wishes.
And in the case of Hillary Clinton, being Secretary of State may have hurt her - that’s where the “but her emails” thing came from (ironically from a picture of her checking her blackberry which was shared as a meme of her being a badass).
I think it also hurt her because in spite of the fact that it hasn’t ever actually panned out since WWII (I think), the public still views some of these high-profile cabinet picks as anointing a successor which played into her existing reputation as a pqrty insider who was being fousted on the country.
It seems like esp after Trump it’s becoming obvious that no one can really predict what qualities the public wants in a president, we just “know it when we see it” after the fact, so trying to find the next Obama and giving them a cabinet position is going to be a shot in the dark any way.
Oh, I’m not trying to argue that being a prominent cabinet secretary helps–plainly, it hurts. But there’s no real reason a SecDef or SecState or AG is less qualified than a VP or most Senators or Governors. They have real responsibilities and real executive authority. It’s just that voters don’t see that.
WaPo: Let’s say Biden doesn’t run is a gift article from the Washington Post with some thoughts of other possible candidates for 2024 besides Biden, a few of whom are indeed under 60, including Buttigieg and AOC. I feel better after reading this list of names - there are some good names in there.
Nominating AOC would be so god damn stupid. I was a fan of Booker until he voted against bringing down drug prices. While I think Sherrod Brown is a good candidate, a senator that can win in Ohio is a big deal. I think Whitmer and Buttigieg are strong as well.
Agreed; and I like AOC. I’d vote for her but Republicans would come out in legion to prevent her from becoming president. She’s the current conservative boogeyman.
Yeah same boat, she’s someone for the bullpen bench to be ready not that far down the road but it’s probably not her time right now. As of today with her I don’t yet feel the Bern, as it were (she’s got plenty time to develop that, though), and I would not want to risk “spending” her too quickly in a campaign where she would get just savaged and be a huge driver of R votes.
Just had another name cross my mind, though this one might be “too soon” for 2024 - but Jon Ossoff, who might have been a little bit of a surprise when he beat David Perdue in 2020 to help the Democrats get to 50 in the Senate.
I’d much rather see Raphael Warnock. I’d love to see the right-wing evangelicals’ heads explode with an actual ordained minister, with a PhD, on the Democratic ticket. (Plus, everything I’ve seen from the guy just impresses the heck out of me.) A Warnock-Whitmer ticket would be A-OK with me, both under 60.
Actually(in addition to Raphael Warnock mentioned above), we could go with two black men running. Michigan’s Lieutenant Governor is Garlin Gilchrist, who is very qualified and was born in, get this, 1982.
Note: His Wikipedia picture is not so great in my opinion.
. But yes, she would have likely done better if she remained in the Senate.
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