George Bush gets hit by a truck next week. Dick Cheney is sworn in as our 44th President. Barack Obama becomes our 45th President on January 20, 2009.
Let’s see. Obama looks good for two terms, so figure 2016. I think he’ll be welcomed back for a second term due to pro-incumbent tendencies.
Won’t be someone from the religious right. Reagan got in after Carter because of serious problems Obama is not go to suffer from in the same way, & could appear more mainstream than the regionalist identity politicians we have now. In fact, I suspect the anti-Obama vote is going to dwindle to a few knee-jerk anti-welfare-state types & regionalist/racists, with no appeal to the mainstream. So if it’s a Republican, it’s going to be a more mainstream-acceptable figure of some kind. And that might take longer than eight years to happen, somehow.
So, a Democrat? I don’t know.
…
Oh, wait, what am I saying?
Joe Biden, mid-2011, postassassination. 
See, I think it’ll take two more pummelings. So, Petraeus 2020, but who in '16?
Oh, I saw her on TV once. She’s impressive. As a fine-lookin’ serious-minded Democrat lady, I’d say she may be better than Gov. Sebelius.
I take the outside track with Susan Collins.
He hasn’t even been sworn in yet, and you already predict the political ebb and flow of the next eight years! I sure hope you’re right, but it’s sheer speculation, and waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too early to say.
The more postmortems of the campaign I read, the more I think it’s going to be near-impossible Palin to pick up the nomination in 2012 - and I didn’t think she was going to get it to start with. Seems it’s a staple for the losing campaign to blame it on the VP nominee, so the McCain people are out there saying she doesn’t know where Africa is or what NATO is and answers the door in a towel and so on. I mean, it can’t possibly the advisers’ fault- they only told the candidate what to do and how to do it for two years! 
So Palin, like Edwards, is already associated with losing, but even more than Edwards the wide perception is that it’s all her fault. She has a core group of supporters, but her and the campaign’s performance may be way too much to overcome.
I was going to pick Lisa Madigan as the next president after Obama. Now, I know people who know her, so I hope my pick doesn’t jinx her. Plenty of Dems out there as potential VP candidates in 2016 so I won’t try to pick one.
I’m already on record here as predicting a Romney/Sanford GOP ticket in 2012 so I’ll stick with that. I don’t see it winning, though.
Interesting to think about… other successful Presidential candidates and where they’d been 8 years before.
Bush in 1992: had held no elective office whatsoever, was the son of a President who managed to blow an 80% approval rating and lose after only one term.
Clinton in 1984: in his second term as governor of Arkansas, having lost and then re-won the governor’s office. Who?
Bush (1) in 1980: Successful VP candidate, prior head of the CIA.
Reagan in 1972: Governor of California - I think he was pretty well recognized as the leader of the Goldwater wing of the Republican party by that point
Carter in 68: had been a state senator for four years, at the time was out of office.
So out of the last 5, two guys who would have been fairly popular picks and three guys no one would have picked.
Quoth Elendil’s Heir:
Of course it’s too early to predict the ebb and flow yet, but that’s what this thread is all about. So we’re giving it our best guesses, and most of us will be wrong.
You’re right, of course. But…[ul][]America likes incumbents.[]Obama would not suffer from the “12 years of the same party” problem McCain would have.[]Many voted against Obama due to his lack of executive experience; in four years he’ll have more relevant experience than his challenger.[]Some voted for the white guy (or Southwesterner or whatever) out of fear of Obama’s cultural differentness. They’ll get more comfortable with Obama in four years.[]I don’t expect the GOP to nominate as good a candidate as McCain in four years.[]Bush is the Herbert Hoover of my generation. The GOP isn’t coming back strong immediately.[/ul]Bill Clinton & GW Bush both won their second terms with higher pluralities than their first. I expect Obama can hold on to his majority.
I think that to be viable, the GOP is going to have to move away from the religious right, finally. McCain didn’t lose among conservatives, he lost with moderates.
How about Chuck Hagel? He will be 70 by 2016, though.
Yes, I did mean Clinton running in 2016.
Barring a similar anti-Democratic backlash, in 8 years Hillary could be a force in the VP slot. In 2016 she would be 69 (younger than McCain), and Slick Willy would have been out of office for 16 years.
All conjecture though. Which direction they go will greatly depend on how Obama’s Presidency ends up turning out.
As much as I hate to agree with Sam Stone :), he’s absolutely correct here. There will be “rising stars” in both parties over the next 8 yrs, and one of them will be the next President.
Also, I see no reason to think that Biden will step down - as others have said, this is the pinnacle of his career, and he will enjoy being an important part of this administration.
I’m sure the Republicans will agree completely that Biden should be in charge of the Senate. 
IOf the old war monger stays in Iraq and then clears Afghanistan ,he will be 150 years old.
A gay woman at that.
A gay black woman? Have you been talking to BrainGlutton again?
A native American prez would be cool. Especially if thy went by his/her tribal name. President “crouches with fox” will address the nation tonight. Of course his opponents would accuse him of being in cahoots with “Big Casino”.