by RICHARD E. BERG-ANDERSSON
TheGreenPapers.com Staff

[NOTE: This essay is a reference for the following:
Mix n' Match your own 2008 DEMOCRATIC National Ticket
Mix n' Match your own 2008 REPUBLICAN National Ticket ]

It's often been said that the campaign for the next election begins as soon as the newly-elected person has been sworn into office, so I guess that means it's high time we all think about Presidential Election 2008! (less than 1450 days away as of this posting!!) [;-)].

Of the 9 Presidents we have had since Dwight "Ike" Eisenhower was the last President without previous elective public office-holding experience, 7 have served as either a Governor or a Senator (only Ford and Bush #41 had never served in the Senate or in a Governor's Mansion). What this means is that it is more than likely that the national Presidential/Vice-Presidential tickets to be nominated at the Major Party National Conventions taking place some three and a half years after this original posting will each be made up of two of the people among current Democratic and Republican Governors and U.S. Senators.

For those of you thinking about the potential 2008 presidential candidacy of former Senator and 2004 Democratic vice-presidential nominee John Edwards of NORTH CAROLINA, please keep in mind that being the losing Major Party vice-presidential candidate in a national election is of little avail: it didn't at all help Bob Dole in 1980 (Senator Dole's far less quixotic unsuccessful run at the GOP presidential nomination in 1988 and his winning that nomination in 1996 were far more the result of his having stayed in the Senate), it certainly didn't help Jack Kemp when he was mentioned as a potential 2000 GOP presidential candidate soon after Bill Clinton's second inaugural and, as the most recent Presidential Primaries and Caucuses seemed to have proved, it didn't much help Democratic Senator Joe Lieberman in 2004!

For those of you who are thinking that some as yet unknown Democratic or Republican Party elective office-holder who will (unknown to any of us, as of this posting) elected in the meantime (e.g. a new Democrat or Republican Governor or a new Democrat or Republican Class 1 Senator elected in the 2006 midterm elections) might yet be at the top of either Party's national ticket, I'm afraid that is most unlikely (a candidate elected to statewide elective office so soon before the Presidential Nomination Process begins would have a rather tough time of it in the Primaries and Caucuses). Also please keep in mind that any person in the listings linked to this page above and below who faces an election before the first Primaries and Caucuses in January/February 2008 MUST win RE-election to remain a viable candidate for either the Presidency or the Vice-Presidency (however viable that candidacy might, in fact, be: though a Governor on either of these listings who must step down before 2008 because of a term limit or who otherwise voluntarily chooses not to run for re-election [assuming they did not then run for, say, the Senate and lose] would still be considered viable, relatively speaking, for the national ticket).

Keep in mind things like geographical and ideological balance, cross off people who are too old or too ill or who have too much "run for President before" baggage to now be President- as well as those with too little experience or national exposure and, above all, have some good clean fun, folks, picking your own Democratic and Republican presidential/vice-presidential ticket for 2008 via these links!!!

Mix n' Match your own 2008 DEMOCRATIC National Ticket
Mix n' Match your own 2008 REPUBLICAN National Ticket