PLEASE, oh, please, not yet. It’s too soon. Much too soon. There oughta be a law. And such a law wouldn’t necessarily violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution if somebody could demonstrate that talking presidential politics this far out is not just bad taste but obscene.
They say it’s 2016 already. Really. Some talking head on one of the national newscasts announced it the other day. Yes, the presidential election is On. According to him.
Not yet. Please.
Didn’t we just have a presidential election in this country? Shouldn’t there be some sort of (dis)grace period after a presidential election before people start discussing the next one? A bank might make you wait between three and seven years after a foreclosure before it gives you another mortgage. In some parts of the world, mourning periods can last years. Is a presidential election any less shocking to the system?
But it’s On. And they’re off! You’d have more luck stopping the tides.
Hillary Clinton was in the state a week or so ago for the re-naming of the Children’s Library in Little Rock (in her honor). Anna Wintour — who is something of a fundraiser for folks on the port side of politics, and, in her downtime, editor-in-chief of Vogue — was in Arkansas, too. Here she is introducing Mrs. Clinton at some fancy shindig: “I can only hope that all of you here in Little Rock will be celebrating her come November 2016.” When it comes to presidential politics, there’s apparently no such thing as being early, even indecently early.
Rick Perry made national news recently, too. But all he did was announce that he would not be running for governor of Texas still again. Which might be good news for Texas. But the news should have stayed in Texas. Not a chance. All his announcement did was give the commentariat an excuse to speculate on another presidential bid by said Governor Perry. The man still has 18 months to go on his latest gubernatorial term. And by then 2015 would only be just beginning-a whole year before 2016.
Ted Cruz, another Texan, is scheduling speeches in Florida. The press is following every step of Chris Christie and every word of Marco Rubio. Joe Biden, who is employed in the White House in some capacity, is still allowed press conferences. And for some unknown reason, Rand Paul keeps getting TV time. Like father, like son?
In this summer of our discontent just after one presidential election, when the victor has only started his second term, and the next round of national elections isn’t scheduled till 2014, the talking heads are speculating about . . . 2016. And somebody somewhere is bound to be making book on it even now.
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A perceptive Frenchman named Alexis de Tocqueville described an American presidential election this way in his classic study of Democracy in America: “As the election draws near, the activity of intrigue and the agitation of the populace increase; the citizens are divided into hostile camps, each of which assumes the name of its favorite candidate; the whole nation glows with feverish excitement, the election is the daily theme of the press, the subject of private conversation, the end of every thought and every action, the sole interest of the present. It is true that as soon as the choice is determined, this ardor is dispelled, calm returns, and the river, which had nearly broken its banks, sinks to its usual level; but who can refrain from astonishment that such a storm should have arisen?”
These days, dear M. de Tocqueville, the river never seems to sink back into its bank. It’s always at flood stage.
Somebody throw us a life jacket.
Editorial, Pages 10 on 07/22/2013